


The Foxgirl and the Butler

by IHeShe



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: BDSM, Drunk Sex, F/F, F/M, Tentacle Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:15:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23296855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IHeShe/pseuds/IHeShe
Summary: One day, Ara accidentally discovers Oberon's hobby. This will lead her to an unusual relationship, as well as the discovery of the butler's past, and his secret ties with someone she would have never expected.
Relationships: Ara Haan/Oberon
Kudos: 2





	1. Clothes and Knots

**Elsword - Lord Knight**

**Aisha - Elemental Master**

**Rena - Grand Archer**

**Rave - Veteran Commander**

**Eve - Code: Empress**

**Chung - Tactical Trooper**

**Ara - Sakra Devanam**

**Elesis - Grand Master**

**Add - Lunatic Psyker  
**

**I wrote this fanfiction way back when Lu and Ciel hadn't been released yet, so if you're wondering why the two of them, Rose, Ain and Laby aren't listed above that's because they hadn't been released yet.**

* * *

**Clothes and Knots**

It was a normal day. Elsword, Raven and Elesis were out for a job near Feita and wouldn't be back before the end of the week, which meant three or four days. Aisha had left for Velder, apparently she had something to discuss with Noah, and would have come back two days later. Rena went nobody really knew where with Lime, a couple of days earlier. Nobody knew when she'd be back either. Ferdinand had been sent on an errand by Eve that morning and would be back the following day. Add was... well, nobody really had a clue about where he was or what he was doing, but since Eve was home, he was probably near too. Unless he quit being a stalker. Most unlikely. However, since Eve was sleeping, the only one Ara could talk to was Chung. Not like she had something particular to talk about.

Ara went to the kitchen. The Prince, as Elsword something called him to joke around, was sitting on a chair, drinking a cup of coffe. In the middle of the afternoon. Beside his legs was a bag, apparently full of... well, of something.

_... why?_

She sat down and looked at him.

"So... is everything fine?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Because..." she looked at the ceiling "... I'm bored. Eve is sleeping and everybody else is away. I thought you'd have something to, I don't know, talk about, or do. Something"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Ara" he said finishing his coffe "but I'm about to leave too. I heard the ponggo found out something interesting in Altera while digging and I wanted to check it out. I'll probably be away for a week" **  
**

"Oh... I see..."

He stood up and put the bag on his back.

"Have a nice trip, then"

"Thank you"

He walked to the door, took his weapon, which he had left in the entrance, and departed. Ara left out a sigh. Now there was really nobody beside her at home. Well, nobody awake.

 _It's quite unusual for you to be this bored._ Said Eun.

"Well, it's just... I don't know, I feel like every day is just like the previous one... I mean, how long had it been since something changed?"

It was only after what seemed, and maybe actually was, an hour that someone knocked at the door. She went to see who it was, and found out it was a delivery man, with a box as big as his torso in his hands. He left it on the floor and asked her to sign the receipt, then he went back to the city. He looked a bit annoyed for having to go to the forest to deliver the pack. However, after he walked away, Ara looked at the box, curious. She wondered who could have ordered what. Well, thinking about it for a moment, it was probably Eve's doing. Everyone else was away, after all. She took the box to the kitchen and put it on the table. She looked over it to see if there was any int about what was inside on the outside, but found nothing. Then she simply decided to open it. Eve wouldn't get upset for something like that. She took a pair of scissors and cut off the sellotape, threw it away and opened the box. Inside were... ropes. Just ropes. Some were short, while others were very long, and when she took one in her hand it felt a bit gluey. She looked at them, quite startled.

"What..."

"Those are mine" said a voice she wasn't sure she knew. When she turned, standing in the doorway was... Oberon.

"Oh... did Eve wake up?"

"The mistress is still sleeping"

It was probably the first time she saw Oberon not being around Eve. And probably it was the first time she heard him talk, too.

"So... what do you use these for?"

"What could ropes possibly be used for, in your opinion?"

"... yes, I guess that was a stupid question. But why do you need so many of them?"

"It's just to be on the safe side, in case one breaks"

"Ok. And..."

"You sure are talkative"

She looked at him, quite stunned. It's not that what he had just said wasn't true, it's just... she didn't expect him to say it. She always thought him to be... she didn't really know how she thought him to be like, but she never really knew if he could even speak, so the whole thing was surprising.

"... what do you need to tie up?"

He stayed still for a few moments. She couldn't see it under his helmet, but he was checking both her outfit and her appearance.

"What about you?"

"... ... ... wait, what?"

"Do you want me to tie you up?"

It took her something like half a minute to realize what he had just said. Then she blushed.

"W-w-w-where does that come from...?"

"Don't worry, it will be relaxing. Besides, I heard you're bored. Don't you want to try something new?"

"Well..."

_What a cheeky butler. I thought Eve's servants to be more..._

"It's... fine"

_Wait what?! Ara, I'm afraid I didn't quite get what you just said..._

"Then, it would be better if you take off your coat. And your dress. And your skirt"

"You mean, here? In the kitchen? And... wait, my dress? And skirt?"

He slightly bent his neck to his left, in a quite weird way.

"... just the coat is fine. And there is nobody else at home, so there shouldn't be problems with doing it here"

She breathed a sigh of relief. At least, it seemed a breath of relief. She took off her white and orange coat, and left it on a chair. It was a light cloth, which she usually wore without closing it.

_Ara, tell me you're joking. Now._

He bent his neck again, this time to the left.

"You know, without the coat on, your outfit is quite provocative"

"R-really?"

Her short, tight dress, white on the front and black on the sides and on the back, emphasized both her slim figure and her rather large bust, as well as covering a bit her short, orange skirt. She wore a pantyhose and two high wedges, black and orange, and a pair of very large but short, white socks. Her neck, shoulders and arms were completely uncovered, except for a pair of white, tight gloves which almost reached her elbows. They left her hands exposed, though. On her long, black hair she kept a weird hairpin, shaped like an arrow, a white strand of cloth hanging from it. Two strands of hair were made into a braid which was tied behind her head, while almost all the rest of her hair were kept togheter by a big, orange, spherical clip. A bit of her hair fell on her forehead and down on her shoulders. Also, she had an incredible cowlick, which went straight up from her forehead and then bent down to her left.

"Really"

Eun fell silent. Probably she was confused, or maybe just stunned, by what was going on. A few moments passed with nobody saying anything, which just raised Ara's anxiety. Then Oberon spoke.

"I think you'd like something not too... hardcore. This is your first time, I believe"

"Y-yes, you're right..."

"Very well"

He took a rope, a quite long one, from the box and began to walk around her, thinking.

"Raise your arms. Also, close your eyes"

She did so, though she seemed a bit reluctant. He started to pass the rope around her chest, first over, then under, between and around her breasts. Through her dress, she could feel it sliding over her, clinging to her. Oberon ran the rope to either sides of her neck, before she suddenly felt it tighten, squeezing her breast out a bit. It felt... maybe it didn't feel good, but it definitely wasn't bad.

"Are... are you done?"

"Not yet"

He finished to knot the rope behind her back and took another one from the box. He told her to stay still the very moment he passed the rope around her hips. Probably, if he hadn't said it, she would have instinctively moved away. Her heart was beating fast, and she was almost starting to sweat. She still didn't open her eyes, and that only enhanced the sensation given by Oberon's hand tying her. She felt he running the rope around her hips two more times, then he slid it... between her legs?!

"That's..."

"Fine" he cut her off.

He then linked the second rope to the first one by running it up and down her torso, two times right beside her breast and a third one behind her back.

"I've finished" he said, his voice's tone revealing something that sounded a bit like... pride? Maybe.

Ara opened her eyes and looked down. It was like she was wearing totally revealing underwears made of ropes, which, honestly, looked quite good for the eye, since the pattern Oberon ran the ropes into was really nice to see. Also, they were tight, but not to the point of being painful. Actually, she regretted a bit not taking off her clothes, thinking about how it would have felt without them on. Then she realized she would have been half naked in front of Oberon. Her face, already red, turned even redder, and her heartbeat speeded up. Again. Oberon took the box and began to walk away.

"H-hey, wait a moment! Where are you going?"

"I'm taking these to my room"

"And what about... ehr, me?" she said, pointing at the ropes.

"We talked about me tying you up. Nobody ever said anything about untying you"

"You're joking"

"I'm not programmed to do so" he said, and walked away. Then, from the stairs, she heard him say "I'll take them off later. In the meantime, enjoy yourself"

She fell silent, and sat on a chair.

"Thank goddess nobody's around..."

She stood up and, when she tried to walk, she felt a small pressure. Right between her legs. She looked there, and noticed a small knot in the worst place possible. She stared at it, startled. She walked a bit in the kitchen, and with every step she felt it pressing against her, the stimulation getting slowly stronger. She sat down, holding her head between her hands. That was, like, totally unexpected.

"Maybe I should try to undo at least this one..."

Then, she heard someone walking in. She istantly took her coat and put it on, closing it. Then Rena walked in.

"Oh, Ara. Did you already have dinner?"

"N-no, not yet..."

"Uh...? It's rare for you to keep your cloat closed"

"W-well, it's just... it's quite cold today, isn't it?"

"I don't really think so, but..."

Ara thought her heart to be beating so fast Rena could have heard it.

"Do you mind calling Chung and Eve for dinner? I'm quite hungry"

"Chung went to Altera, and said he would be away for a week"

"Oh, I see. Then go call Eve. I'll start making somethin"

"Yeah, sure"

"... are you okay? Your face is all red"

"I-it's nothing, really!" she said, and the istant she took a steep, a light pressure between her legs reminded her why she was so nervous. Going upstairs wasn't really a big trouble, but as she walked in the hallway the sensation started to pile up a bit too much. She reached the door to Eve's room and knocked. Ophelia opened the door and looked at her, without saying a word. Just like with Oberon (at least up to that day) she had never heard her speaking. Behind her, Ara saw Oberon combing Eve's hair.

"Ehr... Rena is making dinner, so..."

"She's back then" Eve said "When did she arrive?"

"A moment ago"

She stood up and began to walk down to the citchek, followed by her two servants. Seeing Ara stranding in front of her door, however, she stopped.

"Is something wrong?"

"Eh? Ah, no, nothing..." she answered, and followed the nasod queen down the stairs. The two girls sat down as Oberon and Ophelia started to laid the table. In the meantime, Rena was almost done with her cooking. There was something nobody knew about her: the reason why she never cooked meat. When they first realized it they thought it was because she was an elf and, for what they knew, it could have just been that elves didn't eat meat. Then they found out she actually liked it, maybe even more than Elsword did. However, nobody really asked, for different reasons. Once she had finished preparing dinner, Oberon and Ophelia served dinner, while the elf sat down. Eve was in front of her, and Ara was on her left. When Eve asked where Chung was, Rena told her what she had heard from Ara. They began to chat as they were eating, and after a while they noticed something. Rena turned to Ara.

"You're unusually quiet, you know?"

"R-really?"

"You're sweating" Eve pointed out "Maybe it would be better if you take off your coat"

"No!"

They looked startled at her. Her face turned red, again.

"Ehm... I... I think I'll go to sleep now..."

"Sure..."

She walked off, a small stimulation never leaving her steps. Rena and Eve looked at each other, a bit confused.

"... by the way, why were you sleeping in the middle of the day?"

"I felt sleepy. That's all. And you? Where had you been with Lime?"

"I think you could call it camping"

"Sounds boring"

"..."

Meanwhile, Ara was in her room. She locked the door, threw her coat on the bed and began tinkering with the knots. After a dozen of minutes she still had to make any progress. After another ten minutes she gave up. She never thought that taking off a couple of ropes would be that hard, especially with her hands free. As long as she had them on, she wouldn't even be able to change into her night robe. She decided to try to undo the ropes by herself again, and again it proved quite useless. Suddenly, someone knocked at the door.

"Ara, are you ok?" asked Rena.

"Y-yeah, I'm just a bit tired... really, its nothing"

"If you say so. Goodnight then"

"Goodnight"

After no less than an hour and a half, which was to say, during the night, someone else knocked.

"I'm Oberon"

She unlocked the door and opened it. He walked in.

"So?"

""So" what?"

"Do you want to keep them on?"

"No!" she shouted.

"I think you should keep your voice down"

"..."

"Turn around"

"Eh?"

"You want me to take them off, right?"

"Sure"

She turned the other way, and Oberon began to undo the knots. He started from the higher part, unwrapping some burls, then went down to the lower part. When he slid the rope away from between her legs, a last, but relatively strong stimulation hit her there, making her squeak in surprise. He left the first rope on the floor as he finished to take off the second one. In less than three minutes he had finished.

"I'm done"

She felt... as exaggerated as it may sound, she felt free. Thought there was something else. She looked in a mirron, and noticed there were light, red marks on the sides of her neck , where she had no clothes between the rope and the skin. Without saying anything, Oberon walked away, carrying the ropes with him and closing the door behind him. She stayed there, still a bit startled, before letting herself fall on the bed.

_Do you mind telling me what's gotten into you?_

"I... I don't know, really"

_Well, I hope you learned the lesson._

"Which lesson?"

_Guess it by yourself._

"Well..."

She thought about it. In the end, it didn't feel bad. Actually, it felt quite good. Not only for the... "knot in the wrong place", as she referred to it. Being tied up... she liked the sensation it gave her. And, after all, it did entertain her. In a most unexpected way, but it did it.

"I guess... I guess I'll ask him to do it again..." she whispered, blushing a bit at the thought.

_... what? No, really, what the freaking hell did you say?!_

"D-don't shout in my head!" she said back, taken by surprise by Eun's sudden scream.

_Like hell I'm not shouting! What would have happened if Rena or Eve saw you in that state?!_

"N-nothing too bad I think..."

_Then why was your heart beating like there was no tomorrow?!_

"Well..." she didn't know how to respond.

_You know what? Do whatever you want. Just don't drag me into this._

"Is there even a way you can be dragged into this?"

_Just. Shut. Up._

"O-ok..." now she really annoyed her.

She thought about getting changed and going to sleep, but it was already late, and so she decided to keep her clothes on. After a few minutes, she fell asleep. Forgetting to turn the light off.

Oberon was still right behind the door, listening to what she was saying. He couldn't hear Eun, but he somehow figured out what she was saying, at least vaguely. After a few minutes of silence he left, walking to his room, which was next to Eve's one. Waiting for him, with the door open, her arms folded, was Ophelia.

"Enjoying yourself?"

"That's quite an human line coming from you"

"And yours is quite an unusual hobby"

"This is normal. Had you seen what some nasods used to do in their free time back before the great war, you'd hardly find anything else weird"

She smirked.

"Isn't that way you always tell me about how things were back then?"

"I guess"

They walked in. The room was white and quite big, but almost completely empty. There were three beds, one of which was hardly ever used, three wardrobe and a chandelier. There was nothing on the walls, except for a window near as big as the door was. Oberon opened his wardrobe and put the ropes inside.

"How is she?" Ophelia asked.

"... she's... interesting"

"Really? Now the fingers of one hand alone won't be enough anymore to count how many things you find interesting"

"That's an human joke"

"Yeah, yeah"

"I think you should get some sleep now"

"What about you?"

He closed the wardrobe.

"I guess I'll do the same"

That was how that day ended.

* * *

The next morning, when Ferdinand came back, he found Oberon and Ophelia in the kitchen, making breakfast.

"Is the mistress awake?"

"Not yet. Did you find them?"

Ferdinand raised a couple of plastic bags with his right hand.

"Are you sure it's fine for you to have such an hobby?"

"Is there a way this can harm the mistress?"

"... I don't think, no"

"Then it's fine"

"Sounds logic"

"Do you mind bringing this to her?" Ophelia jumped in the conversation, handing Ferdinand a tray with breakfast on it.

"Sure" he answered taking it and going upstairs.

"I'll go to wake up the other two" Oberon said.

"Ok"

It was incredible just how much they talked when they were by themselves. Especially since nobody besides Eve, and now Ara, really knew if they could actually do it in the first place. The butler walked upstairs and reached the door to Rena's room. He knocked a couple of time, waited a dozen of seconds and knocked three more times. That was how he told people of that house that breakfast was ready. He then went to Ara's door, but decided to enter the room. He found her sleeping, her legs on the bed, her face on the floor, her belly left uncovered by her dress, which fell off on her bust because of a weird thing called gravity. It looked like an uncomfortable position. Her face seemed relaxed, though. Oberon stood there, sincerely surprised by the sight. Then he called out to her, but since she still didn't woke up he bent down and moved a finger to one of her armpit. She laughed softly, but still didn't woke up. He stroke her with more strenght, and she laughed more loudly, in addition to suddenly waking up. She instinctively tried to stand up, but ended up falling completely off the bed, hitting her back quite hard on the floor. He didn't expect that. She noticed his presence, and that he was staring at her. Ot at least she thought he was staring at her. It was quite hard to tell, since his face was completely covered.

"Ehr... what...?" she asked while rubbing her back with her hands, her hair a complete mess.

"Breakfast is ready" he said while standing up. Then he simply walked away, closing the door behind him. Ten minutes later, Rena, Eve and Ara were having breakfast, the three servants standing behind their mistress, as silent as they always were when others were around.

"What happened earlier? I think I heard you laughing for a second" asked Rena.

"Oh, that was... nothing. Really, nothing"

The elf looked at her, a bit suspiciously, but decided not to inquire her any further. After that, the whole morning and a bit of the afternoon passed by without anything particular happening. Around a half past three, however, Eve told Rena she had a few things she needed to buy and asked her if she wanted to go to the city with her. Since she had already planned to go shopping one of those days, the elf accepted. They asked Ara if she wanted to go with them, but she answered she wasn't interested. Eve told Oberon to stay at home, because they'd probably be late and she wanted dinner to be ready for when they came back. Ara said she could have done that, but, when they heard that, both Rena and Eve fell silent for a moment. Then they waved off and departed, Ferdinand and Ophelia following their mistress. Ara stood there, a bit puzzled.

"... is something wrong with my coocking?"

"Nothing. It's just toxic"

She turned to Oberon.

"It's what?"

"Do you remember that time you cooked and the following day Elsword went to the hospital? It wasn't because he had been bitten by a poisonous spider"

"You mean it was my fault? Why nobody told me anything?"

"I don't know"

She sighed and began to walk to the door, wanting to take a short walk, but he called out to her. She turned.

"Ye... s...?"

He had a few ropes in his hands. When or where he pulled them out from, she couldn't tell. He bent his neck to the left.

"Ehr... you mean... now?"

"I guess"

"But..."

"We're alone. And we don't know how long it will take them to come back"

"But they just departed, and Eve said they'll probably be late..."

"I'll wait upstairs"

He waited a bit, maybe expecting an answer which didn't arrive, then walked off. He went to her room and left the ropes over a chair, before examining the room. It was pretty much the same size of Oberon, Ophelia and Ferdinand's room, but it looked smaller because it had some furnishings in it. There was, obviously, the bed, which was big enough for two people to sleep in at the sime time, a couple of windows, each a bit smaller than the door, a small wardrobe, and a very small table with two chairs beside it. A door which led to the bathroom. Other than that, there really wasn't much. A small clock hanging on the wall and a cherry bonsai. Her mistress probably wouldn't be back before half past seven, which meant that, if Ara decided to actually come upstairs, he'd have all the time he needed. He sat on the bed, and waited. And waited.

After almost an hour, Ara walked in, quite surprised to find him in her room and not in his. She looked at him, her cheeks slightly red, and looked down to the floor. He stood up, took the ropes and... began to walk off. Ara grabbed him by one of his sleeves, surprised.

"W-where are you going?"

"I have a few other things to do. Or is there something you need me for?"

"That's..."

She muttered something, but her voice was so low he didn't hear her. Or pretended not to hear her.

"Did you say something?"

"D-do you mind t-tying me?"

If Ara could see through his helmet, she'd have seen the grin which spreaded on Oberon's face. Still, he didn't answer. He stood there, not moving.

"... please?"

"The coat. Take it off"

"S-sure"

She left it on one of the chairs. Oberon then gestured her to turn her back to him. She did so, and he grabbed her hands, placing them behind her head. He began to run the rope on her body, first around her chest, but then the rope went to her wrists. He tied them togheter, and moved the rope back to her chest, knotting it tightly. The whole thing took about five minutes, maybe four. In all honesty, she didn't expect it. She tried to move her arms, but they were firmly bound high behind her head. Her body started to heat up a bit. It was her first time being restrained, and, though she didn't realize it herself, it turned her on quite a bit. He suddenly pushed her down on the bed, with just enough strenght to make her loose her balance.

"H-hey"

"Is something wrong?"

"N... no, not really..."

He took her ankles and tied them togheter, then did the same to her thighs, preventing her from spreading her legs. She found herself pretty much unable to move then, and it did scared her a bit. She stood there for a couple of minutes, silent, wondering what was next. Then Oberon moved her on her side, leaving her face-down on the sheets. He sat over her legs, completely preventing her from moving, and placed his hands on her shoulders. Then he... massaged them. It was, probably, the last thing she had expected. It felt nice, though. It wasn't her first time being massaged, and it wasn't the best one, but he sure knew what he was doing. Just, with her hands tied behind her head, it felt a bit weird. He then moved to her back, slowly. It was relaxing. Still, she didn't get why he had tied her if that was all he had planned. He went on for about five minutes, then she felt something. His hands slipped under her dress, directly touching her back. Her heartbeats became faster. He moved his fingers around for a bit, before placing them on her hips. He began to slowly massage her. It was... ticklish. She thought about telling him something, but she didn't really know what to tell him, and ended up being silent. That's, except for the slight laughters that began to escape from her mouth. He moved away from her for a moment, and turned her on her back, before sitting again on her legs. She looked at his covered face, curiosity all over hers. That's when he moved one hand under her dress, over her bellybutton, and the other to her armpit. That's what made her snap. Neither of them knew if it was because she was very ticklish on her belly or on her armpit, but she bursted out laughing, probably like nobody had ever heard her before. He tried to focus both hands on her armpits, and it seemed effective. She began to stuggle against both the ropes and Oberon's weight, but to no avail. He kept teasing her, enjoying her laugh.

"S-stop!" she gasped between her laughs "I-I can't b-breathe! I can't!"

Lies. He could tell when a person was running out of air. And she still wasn't. He moved one hand back under her dress, and began to stimulate her hips. Tears began to stream down her cheecks. She was panting, her whole body struggling against the restrains. But she just couldn't bring herself to at least pull Oberon off herself, not while being tickled that hard. Her eyes closed, she didn't see his hand move on her bellybutton. That sent her wild. Her laughs became even stronger, and Oberon had to actually pull down on her to keep himself in balance. She told him to stop again, and again, but he ignored her for a good thirty minutes. Then he stopped. It still took her some seconds to stop laughing and begin to really catch her breath. Then he noticed something. He placed his face close to her waist, then moved down a bit. He raised her skirt, and noticed her panties and pantyhose were wet. And it definitely wasn't pee. She was so busy gasping for air, she didn't even noticed he looked under her skirt.

He waited a couple of minutes, in order for her to really catch her breath, then rolled her over again, leaving her face-down on the bed. He placed himself on her again, this time facing her legs. Pulling her ankles close to him, he began to tease her feet. She tried to hold her voice down, but it lasted for something like forty seconds before she started to laugh again. After a while she even gave up resisting and simply decided to enjoy it. She was sweating so much it almost looked like she had just had a shower. He turned to face her back again, and went for both her sides and belly. After a good twenty more minutes, he stopped again, pondering something. He thought about it for a few seconds then decided to give it a try. He gave her a spank.

"Kya!"

It wasn't strong. It's just she didn't expect it at all. He enjoyed her reaction, and spanked her some more, despite her protests, which, however, didn't sound all that convincing. Then her whole body suddenly tensed up, and she arced her back. She felt an intense pulsing in her intimate spot, which lasted for only a few seconds but felt more than awesome, followed by a few throbs, during which the sensation didn't vanish, just got a bit weaker. Then, it all faded away, leaving her completely exaust, but, somewhere inside her, she felt satisfied. Oberon looked at her, amused. Did she really reached climax just by being tickled and spanked? He couldn't help but smile, and that smile didn't leave his face, not until he had finished to untie her.

"That was mean..." she said, still a bit out of breath. He embraced her, another thing she didn't expected, and patted her head. If her heart was somehow calming down, it sent it back racing, though not as strong as it was a few minutes ago.

"You've been great, you know. But I think you should take a shower now. I'll wash the sheets. And your clothes, if you want to.

"Wash the...?"

She looked down, and noticed she had damped both her clothes and the bed with her juices. Her face turned a bright red.

"Ah... ah... aaaahhhh!"

She darted to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. He stood there, dumbfounded. That was a reaction he truly hadn't expected. At all. Maybe that's why he enjoyed it so much. Looking at the clock, he noticed it wasn't even seven o'clock yet, so he decided to wash the sheets before preparing dinner.

Meanwhile, Ara was in her bathroom, taking her clothes off. That's when, from the window, someone knocked. She looked at who it was. Add. Leaving aside the fact that she was half-naked, what was he doing on a tree's branch, outside of her window?

"Where is Eve? I fell asleep this morning and when I woke up she wasn't at home anymore?"

Ara opened the window, took what looked like a... brick? And threw it at Add's face. He somehow managed to avoid it, but he lost his balance and fell down, hitting his back on the ground after a six-meters fall. He stood up and shouted.

"What the hell was that for?!"

She didn't answer, just closed the window, and then went to enjoy her shower. A long, long shower.

That evening, when Eve, Rena, Ophelia and Ferdinand, the last one carrying something like thirty shopping bags, nothing special happened. After dinner, Eve went to her room and began, or continue, to work on something. Ara and Rena had a chess match, which resulted in utter defeat for the latter. Before midnight, everyone was sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Have a nice day/afternoon/evening/night/. Bye.


	2. Mr. and Mrs. Kidnapper

**Mr. and Mrs. Kidnapper**

She woke up. The sun still hadn't risen, so she decided to stay in the beed for at least thirty more minutes. It was... nothing. It really was nothing. Sure, it was warm under the sheets, but it could have been also freezing, she still would've decided to lie down for a bit more. It was like that, for them. They could feel physical stimulus, but that was all. What really mattered was the meaning they gave to those stimulus. Ferdinand liked to feel cold. They didn't know why. They never asked him, and he never told them. For the same reason, they didn't know why Oberon had that hobby. Their mistress, however, was different. Probably because she had been built to be as close as possible to humans. That's why her reactions and theirs were so differents, and they tended to act like machines while she didn't. It had always been like that. It was what distinguished Nasod's royals from the others. When Ophelia decided to get up, the sun was still rising. She found out both Oberon and Ferdinand were already awake. Since when, she didn't know, and didn't even wanted to know. It didn't matter. They stood like that for... probably twenty minutes. Looking at each other, silence filling the room. It was routine. It happened almost every morning. Each one of them knew why he did it, but ignored what drove the other two to do the same. Probably Eve didn't know about it. It was nothing that could harm her in any way, so they had no reason to tell her. Suddenly, Ferdinand stood up.

"I'll go wake up the mistress"

The other two nodded. He walked out of the room, a trail of silence behind him. After a few moments, Ophelia spoke.

"I had a dream"

He looked at her, amazed. It wasn't rare at all for them to dream. It was really rare to remember what they had dreamed. Their mechanical brains, though able to produce dreams, registered them as unnecessary informations, and deleted them. Since it happened during their sleep, there was nothing they could do about it. Humans would probably define it as something "sad". Not for them. To them, it just "was". Still, sometimes they could remember what they dreamed. They didn't know why, and didn't care. But they liked it. For some reason, it made them feel... alive.

"What did you dream?"

"You. But you didn't have that" she said, pointing at the chain which connected his neck to his wrist. He fell silent for a moment.

"You know what this represents"

"Yes"

It was the symbol of his status. He wasn't free. He was a slave. A well-treated one, sure, but a slave. It was different for Ophelia and Ferdinand. Unlike him, they were born centuries after the downfall of the Nasod Kingdom. Back in those times, it was normal for every non-royal, non-noble nasod to wear a chain. Oberon simply never took it off, even after being awakened by Eve. He simply went from one mistress to another. It was... natural.

"... we should make breakfast"

"You're right"

* * *

_Ara, it's morning. You should wake up._

"Yes, yes..."

She sleepily stood up. She was wearing a black nightgown, and her hair was one of the greatest mess humanity had ever seen. She somehow dragged herself to the bathroom, reached the tap, turned it on and washed her face. The water was freezing cold, which helped her to really wake up. She washed her teeth before going back to the bedroom. Her clothes had been left on the chair the night before, and were still there. She took off her nightgown, leaving herself completely naked, and put it away in the wardrobe. She then put on her underwear, pantihose, skirt, dress and coat. She then combed her hair. The last thing took her about fifteen minutes. When she had finished, she went back to the bathroom and washed her face again. This time she really woke up. Someone then knocked at the door. Probably it was Oberon calling her for breakfast. She went to open, and found... Ophelia. She stood there, surprised, then realized it wasn't strange at all for Ophelia or Ferdinand to call for breakfast instead of Oberon.

"Ehr... good morning"

Ophelia simply bowed a bit, before walking back downstairs. She followed her. Eve was already in the kitchen, while Rena was probably still somewhere between sleeping and getting dressed. After about five minutes, she reached them, and right then someone knocked at the house's door. Ferdinand went to see who it was. Aisha. She walked in, greeting the others, and happily noticed she was in time for breakfast. She seemed a bit more cheerful than she usually was.

"Did something happen?" asked Ara.

"I'll probably move to Velder next week"

They stopped for a moment.

"... and why?" asked Rena.

"Noah asked me to start working with her on a permanent basis, and I accepted. It seems interesting"

"That's... nice"

"Also, she may help me find a way to keep that annoying, spherical bat away from me"

"It's still going after you?"

"Sadly, yes. Last time I found it inside my pillow"

"What was his name again?"

"I don't know. I've never asked him"

That was it. Nothing else happened until evening. They all talked with Aisha about her decision, but nothing particular was said. Later, while Ferdinand and Oberon were making dinner, someone knocked at the door. Ferdinand went to check, and found, standing in front of the door, Add. His hair looked like he had tried to comb them a bit, but he probably gave up halfway through it. They stood there for a second. Eve did told them that she was waiting for Add, but for him to use the door instead of one of the windows, and to actually knock and not blow it up completely even if it was open, well that was strange.

Ferdinand left the door open, and walked away, leaving him there, waiting. He went upstairs, to Eve's room, and entered. Ophelia was combing her hair, which was loose, unlike always. Also, he was wearing a black, short dress, with an incredibly short skirt. Her legs were covered by black boots, long enough to leave only a small part of her thighs uncovered. Her arms where completely covered by black gloves, wich connected to each other behind her back, which was completely covered. Her neck was covered, as well as her shoulders. Her fingers, instead, were bare. All of her clothes had a few red decorations over them, and were incredibly tight.

"Did he arrive?" she asked.

Ferdinand nodded. Ophelia finished with her master's hair and gave the last touch-up to her clothes, then Eve walked out of her room. She met Rena in the hallway.

"Are you going... somewhere? What's with that outfit?" she asked.

"I'll be back late tonight. Don't wait for me awake. Is something wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing, they're just..."

A bit provocatice, but she refrained from saying it.

"And where are you going? With Add... last time you two "went out" was when he tried to kidnap you"

"I need him. As a test subject"

"What?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she reached Add at the door. He was wearing his usual black and dark purple clothes. Happiness was all over his face. They walked away, standing almost a meter away from each other, his dinamo and her drones floating behind them. It was... a weird sight. Really. But that was it. Nothing else happened for the rest of the evening. But something did actually happened during the night.

Oberon was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against his bed, when someone woke him up. He looked up to see who it was. Ara. Well, it wasn't really Ara.

"I see you still don't like beds"

"Eun? What do you want this late at night?" he asked, bending his neck to the left.

She didn't answer, but motioned him to follow her. He did it. They went to the kitchen. Eun sat on a chair, and asked Oberon to do the same. He did, and looked at her. She was wearing a black, long nightgown. It was completely transparent, except for the area which covered her breasts. Her black, lace panties were visible. Oberon wondered if she had some non-erotic dress in her wardrobe. Then again, Ara probably wasn't even aware those clothes were erotic. Maybe it was Eun's influence. She was a gumiho, after all. However, what was more striking were extremely long, silvery, almost shining hair, and her red, no, scarlet eyes, so deep one could get lost staring at them.

"What are you doing with Ara?"

"I don't get the point of your question"

"Is it some sort of... joke or something? Because of what happened between us?"

"... I thought you had forgotten about those times"

"I'm as human as you are. I don't forget things easily, even after more than three thousand years"

"... it has nothing to do with that. Her being your current vessel is just a coincidence"

"Take off your helmet. And say that again, looking me in the eyes"

He stood still for... a minute? Maybe an hour. Then he removed his helmet. She knew well how he looked under it, though nobody else in that house had ever seen his face. He had black, spiky hair that reached down to his neck. His eyes were blue, the same color of a summer sky. But he was scarred. Four scars marked the right half of his face, going from the forehead to his neck. Those were the signs of Eun's claws.

"I..."

"You what?"

"... I miss those days. I miss you"

Eun stood up.

"I'm not the one responsible of what happened"

She waited for an answer. It didn't arrive.

"I've pretended I've never seen you before ever since we met at Hamel, and I don't plan to make the others aware of our story. Leave Ara out of this"

"Are you jealous?"

"That question is pointless"

She turned her back to him. "You know better than me how jealous I am" she said, and then she walked away. Oberon stood there, in the empty, dark kitchen. Alone.

* * *

The same night, quite far away, Add and Eve had just entered his home. It was a five-room house, hidden in the forest. How, she didn't know. It was quite big, and not seeing it by chance was quite hard. Then again, common logic didn't really apply to Add. They were both kinda beaten up, with some scratches and burns all over them. Nothing too serious, though. Add closed the door.

"So, is the new code working properly?"

"It still needs some days of work. What I'm worried about is the Throne, it's too... unstable as it is now"

"You'd been working on it for only a month, the results are pretty awesome in my opinion. Well, not awesome as you"

"Shut up"

They had spent the last hours "sparring". Which meant Eve shot everything she had at Add while he tried to avoid being killed.

"Do you have a shower in this house?"

"Yes. And there is also a bathrobe for you in the bathroom. I mean, one of yours"

She turned to him.

"... really? Wait, what?"

He grinned.

"Don't pretend you didn't know it already"

"Well, wathever"

"I'll make something for dinner in the meantime"

"Don't blow up your own kitchen"

She walked into the bathroom. It was a rather big room, mostly white, and also quite normal, considering where she was. The only weird thing, aside from one of her bathrobes really being there, were the towel heater fixed on the ceiling, which was rather low. The wipes, hanging from there, gave quite a weird feeling. She decided to just ignore it. Actually, she wasn't really comfortable with having a shower with Add around, but she really needed one. Or at least she felt that way. Still, nothing weird happened. Except Add probably blowing up something in the kitchen, judging from the explosion she heard. She put on her bathrobe. It was big, maybe a bit too much for her, like two sizes too big, black with a silvery pattern all over it. Why she used bathrobes that large for her, nobody knew. She took one of the towels and began to dry her hair, when the door opened. Add walked in. Soaked. Wearing a bathrobe.

"..."

"I need a towel. There aren't in the other bathroom"

"Why do you have two bathrooms?"

"I don't know. The house was already like this when I finished building it"

"That makes no sense. Your answer, I mean"

"Well, sense is overestimated"

He walked past her, took one of the towels and walked back out.

"... wait, wasn't he cooking?"

She finished drying herself, put her clothes back on and went to the kitchen. Add was already there, his hair still pretty wet. He had already set the table, but something... just didn't feel right.

"... toasts. You managed to get an explosion while making toasts. No, actually, what I wanted to say is: you call a dozen of toasts "dinner"?"

"Well, I did try to prepare a couple of pizzas, but the oven suddenly decided its time had come and blew up"

_... sometimes I wonder if he really created the Dinamo by himself..._

They sat down.

"You didn't put anything weird inside, right?"

"You doubt my cooking skills?"

"Who wouldn't?"

"Ah, I love it when you act like this"

"Shut up"

Dinner was over in roughly fifteen minutes. She stood up and looked out of the window. It was late, probably midnight had already passed.

"I'll head back now"

Add smiled. It was kinda creepy. She walked toward the exit, always facing him. She turned only to open the door. And right at that moment, something hit her hard on the back of her head. She heard a... plate? Probably it was the sound of a plate shattering. Then she passed out.

When she woke up, she was lying on a large, a bit fluffy and quite comfortable bed. The room wasn't exactly big, and there was only one window, on the ceiling, through which she could see the moon. The room was lit by a few candles. It was a bit hot inside there, she wasn't sure why. The back of her head was still hurting. She tried to get up, and only then she realized her hands had been tied behind her back. Her ankles, instead, had been bound to her thighs, in the likeness of a crouched frog. She somehow managed to stand up, if standing on her knees could be called stand up, and noticed she was wearing nothing but her black, frilly lingerie. She tried to move around, but the results were awkward. Then Add walked in, in his usual clothes, whistling. He closed the door behind him and sat down on the bed. She glared at him.

"What's the meaning of this?"

"It's... wait, what was the word? Ah, right. Payback. Remember last month, when you brought me inside a cave, drugged me and had your way with me for some hours? It took me two weeks to recover from that"

Well, that was true.

"What did you hit me with?"

"A teapot. Well, maybe I should have used something a bit less fragile"

A moment of silent followed. Then Add reached her and pushed her down on the bed.

"You won't get away with this"

"I'll think about that later"

He began to lick her neck, occasionally sucking on it, slowly moving to her mouth. He licked her lips, then she opened her mouth. His tongue entered her mouth. Then she bit him. He instinctively put some distance between their faces, then touched his bleeding tongue with his hand.

"You're really adorable"

"Untie me, and I'll show you just how much more "adorable" I can be"

"You don't need to show me"

He took something from... she didn't really know where. It was a leather gag, with a few metallic parts. It took him something like half a minute to put it on her. She tried to resist, but she couldn't really do nothing more than squirming helplessly. Once he was done, her mouth was stuck open. She tried to say something, but she couldn't even do that anymore. She saw him biting his own tongue, causing it to bleed more. Then he grabbed her head and pulled her close to her, bevore entering her mouth with his tongue. She could feel their saliva mixing togheter, along with his blood. What a psycho. He took his sweet time savoring her mouth, and when he finished she tried to spit out what she had in her mouth. I mean, what she had managed to not swallow. He turned her so that she was giving his her back, and moved his hands under her bra, over her small breasts. He began to slowly play with her nipples as he licked her ear, stimulating one of her weak spots, enjoying the sight of her bare, porcelain skin. He kept massaging her chest for a while, and when one of his hand moved to her navel she had already started panting softly. He moved his fingers over her stomach, giving her a tickly sensation, before sliding his hand under her panties. He giggled upon finding her already wet, and started to toy with her nether region. Had she had her mouth free, she would have bitter her own lips to prevent herself from moaning. But she couldn't, so she simply tried to endure it. But then he bit her neck with enough strenght to cause blood to start flooding. She screamed, taken by surprise, and right at that moment his fingers entered her, causing her to moan. He pulled them out rapidly, and went back to massaging her entrance, while his other hand went to play with her clit. She tried to move away, but to no avail. Add went to lick her other ear. She started to pant heavily. His fingers entered her once again, and began to move slowly. He kept playing with her for a while, then stopped. Taking her head in his hands and turning it to face him, he kissed her again. The taste of his blood was still inside of her. He placed an hand over her chest, and felt her heartbeat. It was fast. He took the gag off of her mouth.

"Do you want to continue?"

"Like hell you'll have me asking for it"

"Aahh, I love you" he said as he went back to her lower half. In a few minutes, he had her reach her climax. She moaned loudly as she arced her back, then began to pant heavily, in need for air.

"Are... you... satisfied?"

"Yes. Wait. No"

He pushed her down on her back, placed his face between his legs and moved her panties away with his hand. Then he began to lick her. She tried to keep herself from making any sound, but she couldn't help but moan when he began to touch her clit again, stroking it as he pleased. He moved over to her belly and began to lick her belly button, while one of his hand suddenly penetrated her other entrance with two fingers. She screamed.

He kept playing with both her entrances, while his head went up, to her chest. He moved her bra out of his way with his teeths, and began to lick her nipple, increasing her pleasure. She tried to get away, but even without Add pushing her down, she couldn't really move around tied up like that, and all the stimulations she was being given made it hard for her to even think straight. Then he gently bit her chest, between her breast, and went to her mouth. He kissed her again, and this time she didn't bit him. Maybe because she didn't like the perspective of having to drink his blood again. Whatever the reason, she let him toy with her tongue, and deep down she really enjoyed it. Truth is, she found Add a great kisser, but she would have never admitted it. He then went back to her nether region, and explored her inner parts with his tongue, now dirty with her saliva. It proved to be too much for her. Another wave of pleasure ran through her. She didn't moan, but instead a soundless scream left her lips. She gasped for air, but her mouth meet Add's one once more. She felt her own love juice run down her troath. He took half a steep away from her, and enjoyed the sight of her flushed face.

"Satisfied?"

She didn't answer, but just stared at him. Her gaze, however, wasn't a threatening one. It contained the plead she would have never let him hear.

"I guess that means you want me to continue"

"I guess... you decided that... all by... yourself..."

"You're such a cute liar, Eve"

He took off his pants, placed his member between her legs and slowly rubbed it against her entrance, causing her to moan.

"So?"

"I'm not sure... ah... what you want... me to say... mmm..."

"You're really great"

He moved to her other entrance and suddenly penetrated her.

"Ah! That's... the wrong... ah... hole! You... Moron!" she shouted between her own panting and moans.

"I really don't think so"

It was painful at first, not because she was not used to that but because it was too sudden. Still, the pain quickly turned into pleasure. She could feel him moving back and forth inside of her, her voice revealing how much pleasure it gave her. She soon had another orgasm, but Add kept going, ignoring her protests. Though she didn't really want him to stop yet. He kept pounding her, until she felt his seed entering her. He withdrew from her, and went back to licking her clit until she came again. Completely exhausted, she just stayed there, still unable to move.

"Enjoyed... yourself...?"

"Not as much as you enjoyed it"

He stood up and put his pants back on, then moved to the door. Before he could open it, however, he heard the sound of a glass shattering. He turned to see Moby and Remy, Eve's drones, besides her. They probably had managed to break out from where Add had put them. They cut Eve's restrains and then turned into a gatling. The Nasod Queen took it and aimed at Add.

"Do you mind letting me..."

"Like! Hell!"

That night, unusual sounds echoed in the forest. And they somehow sounded really, really painful.

* * *

The following day, Raven was walking in the middle of the forest when Add called out to him. He turned. The white-haired man was on a nearby tree.

"You're going back to the house, right?"

"Yes, why?"

He jumped off the tree and walked up to him. His clothes were in an orrible state, and he looked like he was on the receiving hand of both a fistfight and a gunfight.

"The hell happened to you?"

"Something great, my friend" he answered, a huge smile on his face.

"Yeah, greatly twisted I guess"

_Wait. Friend? I tought I was "guy with an awesome arm" for him._

Add handed him a cd.

"Can you give this to Eve and tell her we should do it more often?"

His voice was extremely happy. So much that, hadn't it been for the state he was in, Raven would have been envious of whatever happened to him.

"Can't you give it to her by yourself?"

"I'd like to, but I have a few bullets and scraps to take out of my head before they damage my brain"

"Trust me, it can't get worse that it already is"

"Oh, I didn't you had sense of humor"

Raven took the cd.

"I guess I can do it. Unless... this is not a bomb like last time, right?"

"It's not, trust me"

"I trust what my arm will do to your face if it is"

"That's close to fine"

"I. Won't. Ask. You. Why"

"Well then, see you... when we meet again"

With that, Add went back on the tree and disappeared from there.

"... why can't he just walk on the ground?"

He looked at the cd. Over it was written "I recorded it for you. I thought you may want it for your collection"

"... "recorded"... what?"

He put it in his pocket and began to walk. It took him almost half an hour to reach the house from where he met Add. It was almost lunch time when he arrived. He walked to the kitchen, and found Rena cooking.

"Oh, you're back. How did the job go?"

"Quite smoothly. Where are the others?" he asked as he began to help her preparing lunch. He could cook much better than one would expect.

"Aisha and Ara are having a chess match upstairs. Oberon, Ophelia and Ferdinand are in their room, and Chung went to Altera a few days ago. As for Eve, she went out with Add yesterday and still hasn't come back. I'm a bit worried, honestly"

Raven thought about Add's conditions when he met him earlier.

"Nah, I'm sure she's fine"

"Yes, you're probably right. By the way, where are Elsword and Elesis?"

"They stopped at Elder, I think Elesis wanted to go shopping or something. They'll probably arrive this evening"

"Oh, that's nice"

It took them roughly fifteen minutes to get lunch ready. Raven began to walk upstairs, but Rena grabbed his hand and pulled him close. He put his left hand over his mouth just in time to intercept her lips. She took a step back.

"Still refusing me?"

"I'd like you to stop"

He left her there, disappointed (again), and went to call Ara and Aisha. By the look on their face, Ara had won the match. Again. When was the last time she lost at chess? Oh, right. She neved did it. The two girls walked downstairs, but Raven stood there for a few moments, then decided to go to Oberon, Ophelia and Ferdinand's room. He opened the door and looked inside. They were all there, all sitting on their own bed, staring at each other. They turned to Raven when he walked in. It was... a bit creepy.

"Uh... have you seen Eve?"

They shook their heads, almost synchronized.

"Wel... ok"

He closed the door and walked down. He was hungry, and lunch was ready.

* * *

Add was standing over a tree branch, looking at a small screen projected by his Dinamo, when something hit him on the back of his neck with enough strenght to make him fall down. And, just when he hit the ground, it collapsed, and he fell inside a quite large pit.

"What the?!"

He somehow managed not to land on his head. He stood up and took whatever had hit him out of his neck. It was a syringe. Empty. He knew what was gonna happen. Something hit him in the back, at least half a dozen of times, at the same moment. He turned, and saw Eve, what looked like a... syringe-gun?... in her hands. He noticed a bag full of... something, behind her legs, then his vision began to blur, his limbs lost strength and he fell on his knees. Eve smiled.

"As you'd say, Add, this is payback" she said, her drones turning into a whip.

"You're the best"


	3. Unexpected Guest

**Unexpected Guest**

Lunch went on smoothly, without anything special happening. Rena went to the city to meet Elsword and Elesis, and probably also to do some shopping. Raven, instead, remained at home to clean up the kitchen, while chatting with Aisha, probably about her decision to move, which for some reason, gave Raven an hard-to-read grin.

As regards Ara, she was in her room, staring out of the window, once again bored. She thought about a chess match with someone, but... truth is, the only one who really stood a chance against her at that game was Raven, and sometimes Elesis, but one of them was busy at the moment and the other had yet to come back home. Well, there was Eve, too, but... she had bad memories about her first and only match with her. She considered yawning, but then realized it would be quite pointless, and ended up not doing it. She started rolling over the bed, which sent her cowlick in an amazing spinning motion through the air.

"You know, you've been really quiet lately, Eun"

No answer.

"... Eun?"

Silence. Again.

"Are you... still mad at me?"

Once again, she didn't receive an answer.

"Oh, come on, you can't..."

Then, someone knocked. She stood up, walked to the door and opened it. It was Oberon. He looked... well, exactly how he always looked like.

"Can I come in?" he asked, after bending his neck to the right.

"S-sure"

She found out his presence was enough to get her tense. Well, as naive as she was, she could still see why. He entered, and she closed the door behind him.

"Ehm... do you have... something to tell me?"

He bent his neck again. To the left, this time.

"I think I've something on mind which you may like. And if you won't like it, then probably it's just that you don't know your own tastes"

"Something sounds wrong in that sentence"

"If you're not interested I can leave. I have other things to do" he said, already heading towards the door.

"Wait! I... I didn't say I'm not interested..."

He pulled a rope from she had no idea where, not like it was the first time he did that. And this time, she had a strong feeling he was grinning under his helmet. She was mostly wrong. Not completely. Just mostly.

"Take off your coat. And everything else you feel like taking off"

"Ehr... ok"

She took her coat off and left it over a chair.

"Is this fine?"

"Take off also your shirt" he answered, a bit disappointed in how much she was still covered.

"Are you sur..."

"Now" he cut her off.

"O-ok"

She removed it and left it over her coat, on the same chair. It actually took a few moments for her to do so, since it was a bit tight. Also, it caused her breast to bounce a little. Almost imperceptibly. Still, once she was done, Oberon found himself speechless. Well, not totally speechless, but really close to.

"... you wear a net top? Under your undergarments?"

That's it. She wore a thick but thin, black net top which was roughly the same size of her shirt. That's probably why noone had ever noticed it. Considering also her black, lace bra, her breast size and, more in general, her figure, just taking off her shirt made her way more provocative than before. And she already was. That net top was beyond Eun's influence. Was Ara really that unaware of her sex appeal?

"Y-you don't like it?" she asked, looking down in a vain attempt to hide her blushing face.

"That's not really the point, but it's not bad. At all"

"R-really?"

"I don't have a reason to lie to you about something like this"

"That's nice to hear... I guess"

Then, he just stared at her. For what Ara thought were a couple of hours. It hadn't been that long, but a good ten minutes did really pass by with Oberon staring at her doing nothing, except bending his neck sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. Then, he spoke.

"Turn your back to me"

She did it, a bit reluctant. At least, that's how it looked like. Her hair was so long it completely covered her back. He parted it with his hands. Suddenly, Ara felt his cold finger on her back, slowly tracing a line which followed now her spine now the fabric of her net top. She shivered a bit. Oberon moved his hand away right before reaching her lower part. And then, he spanked her. A mighty, cold spank or her perfectly round buttocks.

"Kyaaa!"

She jumped, almost literally, and turned, the deepest red adorning her cheeks.

"What was that for?!"

"First thing: keep your voice down. Second: you liked it"

"That's not..."

"You're almost shouting"

She stopped, took a deep breath and calmed a bit.

"That's not true"

"It is. Had you forgot your orgasm on the bed, while tied? That wasn't just from being tickled. It was also from being spanked"

"That's... well..."

Her face turned even more red, something Oberon didn't believe was possible. Unsure on how to respond to that, she turned again. He took her arms, causing her to jump again. She didn't expect it. He brought them behind her back and made her wrists touch the opposite elbow.

"Keep them like this"

"S... sure..."

She felt the rope running over her skin, tying her forearms together. The rope slid then over her arms and a bit over her shoulders, as well as encircling her breast. She couldn't see it, but she assumed the knot he was making was placed roughly between her now restrained arms and her neck.

Then, someone knocked. This caused Ara to freeze.

"Ara, are you ok? I think I heard you scream"

It was Aisha.

"N-n-n-o, I'm fine! Really! There's nothing wrong with anything!"

"Are you sure? You sound a bit weird"

"D-don't worry, it was nothing! I just... stumbled on the chair!"

"... well, that sounds like you I guess. I'll be going then"

"Y-yeah, see you later"

Hearing her footstep leaving, she somehow managed to calm down a bit.

"You are one horrible liar, you know?"

"Hey! That was your fault"

"We'll discuss about that later"

In the meanwhile, he had finished the operation.

"It's done"

She tried to move her arms, but, obviously, she couldn't manage to do it.

"Now lay face down on the bed"

"O-ok"

She was almost trembling, and she was not even fully aware it was due to anticipation more that simple nervousness. She let herself fall on the bed, failing to realize that, with her arms tied, she had no way to cushion the fall. Well, the bed was really soft, so it's not like it hurt her. Still, the little scream she made when she realized she was going to collide with the sheets was somewhere between cute and amusing for Oberon to hear. He tied her ankles, knees and thighs together, pretty much like the last time. But this time, he also tied her ankles and thighs together, and linked her feet to the knot behind her back with another rope, then added another rope which went a bit over her head from the same knot behing her back. She somewhat resembled a suitcase now. He left her like that for a few minutes, doing nothing, enjoying both the sight and her easy-to-read excitation.

"So... what now?"

"Wait. I'll be right back"

"Wai-what?"

He stood up, walked to the door and opened it. Then he simply walked out, closing it behind him.

"He's... joking, right?"

She tried to move, but with very little results. She somehow managed to get on her back instead of on her belly, but that could hardly be called an improvement. After a few minutes, Oberon came back.

"Where... where did you go?"

"To check everything was in place"

"Wha..."

Oberon took out from behind his back... an hanger. Also, a rather big and sturdy one.

"What's that for?"

"For you"

"... eh?"

He walked up to her, and really hanged her to the hanger like she was some sort of dress. Surprisingly, she felt her own weight distributed quite fairly on her whole body, not just behind her back, from where the rope she was hanging from started.

 _Oberon really knows how to tie people up_ she thought. She then realized something felt wrong with that sentence.

After a few seconds, she spoke.

"This is so... embarassing..."

He walked to the door.

"H-hey, what are you..."

He opened the door and walked out, into the hallway. Out of her room. Carring her like she was a dress on an hanger. She could feel her heart beating at unmatched speed.

"Y-y-you're crazmfgh?!"

Oberon covered her mouth with his hand.

"I don't mind if the others come to see why you're shouting, but..."

He then moved his hand away.

"You're mean"

He then walked down the hallway.

"Where are we going?" she asked, trying not to think about what was happening to her.

"Right here" he said, turning her so that she could see... Aisha's room. He put an hand over her mouth at the same istant she realized he was going to walk in.

"I'd like to remind you what's going to happen if you scream"

She glared at him, but she couldn't deny the whole thing was making her extremely excited.

He opened the door, and walked in, closing the door behind him. Apparently, Aisha wasn't in her room.

_Thank goddess._

Aisha's room was way bigger than Ara's. Not only the bed was queen-sized, there were also five wardrobes, each one devoid of doors and full of clothes Ara never saw Aisha wearing. Actually, the magician always wore the same set of clothes, so... why did she have all those clothes? Also, a lot of them seemed a bit... weird. Ara wasn't sure what it was, mainly because there were so many packed in a relatively small space that it was hard to tell how exactly they were.

Also, there were a couple of huge windows, one of which was open, a bedside table and two doors, one probably leading to the bathroom, while the other... maybe to her workroom?

"Ok, we can go now, I guess. Right?" she asked.

"Wrong"

"What do you..."

Then Oberon walked to one of the wardrobes and began to move the clothes around.

"No, you can't..."

And then he really hanged her like she was a dress.

"You can'mohg"

He had pulled a leather gag from... somewhere and gagged her. It wasn't too tight, she could still produce sounds, but speaking properly would have been more than difficult.

"I've a last thing for you" he said, and pulled what looked like a remote control from his pocket. There was a tin, quite short cable attached to it, and at it's other end was a small, egg-shaped thing. Ara tried to say something, probably a question, but couldn't manage to emit understandable words. Oberon then put the remote control in her panties, to her side, and the other end... he slid it slowly between her... legs?! Ara tried to do something, neither of them knowing what that something was, but, tied as she was, her effort was simply pointless. He inserted the small egg-like thing under her pantyhose... under her panties... over her most intimate spot. She looked at him, with so many mixed thoughts in her eyes Oberon couldn't quite understand what she might be thinking. He pressed a button on the remote control, and the other end of the object began to vibrate, which caused Ara to squeal, both for the surprise and for the stimulation. Oberon then moved the clothes in the wardrobe around, enough to cover Ara, but leaving her eyes uncovered, so that she could still see the room.

"I'll come to pick you up later. If things go as I think they will, you should also be able to see a nice show. Enjoy yourself"

And with that words, he left. Leaving aside the fact that he jumped out of the window instead of using the door... was it real? Did she really end up in that situation? It was crazy, to say the least. She tried to concentrate on the knots, thinking she may be able to somehow undo them, but the clothes were packed so tight around her, and Oberon tied her up so well, she really could do nothing about it. And the stimulation between her legs... it wasn't that strong, rather, it was almost painfully weak, but it was constant. She had had the first orgasm of her life just a couple of days ago, and so she wasn't used at all to that kind of... phisical feeling, but she couldn't deny she liked it. Well, it would have been strange otherwise. Had she been in her room instead of hidden in Aisha's one, she probably wouldn't have even complained about it.

The door lock clicked. Then turned slowly, under Ara's worried gaze. Well, it didn't really happened slowly, but it seemed so to her.

"Uh? I thought I had locked it" Aisha said, opening the door and walking in. She closed the door behind her and undid the bow on her long, white coat, before taking it off and throwing it in the air. The coat stopped before hitting the ground, and then floated into one of the wardrobes. Not the one Ara was inside. A small shard of ice formed on the magician's palm. She stared at it for a moment, and the ice took she shape of a key. She used it to lock the door, and then the ice faded away.

 _That sure is handy..._ Ara thought, mainly in an attempt to distract herself from what was between her legs.

"So..." Aisha snapped her fingers a couple of times, and a tons of clothes took off from one of her wardrobe, starting to float in front of her. She sit on the bed and began looking at them.

"Which one would he like? Then again, as long as I'm wearing them, he'd like even clothes designed by Elsword, so..." the magician said to herself. While she was going over her excessively large amount of clothes, Ara grasped what felt off about them.

_They're all... cosplay's outfit... ?!_

She recognized a few of them were from books of movies she had red of saw herself, so she assumed the others were cosplay outfits as well. That's... something she really hadn't seen coming. At all.

Aisha gestured with her hand, and a maid outfit floated closer to her. She looked at it, not really convinced.

"I guess I'll keep mine on for this time" she said after a while. She clapped her hands, and all the clothes went back inside the wardrobe. The magician stood up and walked to the centre of the room. A small, transparent square appeared in her hands. She placed it over one of the walls, and it began to cover the whole room. It took it less than a minute.

"This should be soundproof, if I remember correctly" she said to herself again, hitting the wall with the back of her hand, probably to check if she had casted the spell properly. Then, a black, somewhat gloomy-looking door appeared in the middle of the room. Both Aisha and Ara turned towards it, the former happy, the latter confused. The door opened, and some... thing? Walked out from it, closing it behind itself. It then turned towards Aisha, who was flying, almost literally, towards him, arms open.

"Reldeh!"

What came out from the door, which had already disappeared, was... well, it's quite hard to describe it. It had a main body, a bit smaller than an human chest and roughly shaped like a thin tear, a two and a half meters long tear - it took Ara a few moments to realize it was pretty similar to a snake -, where were hosted three big, silvery eyes, each with a different-shaped pupil. Below the eyes were two small cavities, probably the nose. And then there was his mouth. It wasn't that much larger than an human's one, and when he opened it Ara saw no teeth. Truth is, they were simply retractables. His skin was dyed a beatiful mixture of blue and soft green, with several different shades of silver here and there. Too bad it seemed a bit slimy. Still, there was something which threw Ara completely off. That's, the thing, or Reldeh as Aisha had called it, had a few limbs or, to put it bluntly, tentacles. Two departed roughly from where an human would have his arms, in comparison, while the others were hosted on his back.

Aisha hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back. It looked a bit creepy to see, at least for Ara. Then they sat down on the bed. At least, she thought Reldeh sat down. It was a bit hard to tell.

"So, what did you do at work today?"

Reldeh... said something, probably. Ara couldn't understand a single world of what came out of his mouth. Aisha, on the other hand, seemed to know the language.

"Well, that sounds tiring"

Another answer.

"What about your boss? You still haven't told me who he is"

More incomprehensible words.

"If you say so"

Then he extended one of his... limb, and gave something to Aisha. It was a small, red box, closed with a... was that a small chain? She took it, curious. She opened it. Inside was a small, chiseled bracelet, which looked like it was made of obsidian. He said something, and Ara refused to believe he was blushing a little. Still, as unreal as what she was seeing was, it still hepled her not to think about the stimulation she has been receiving for al least five minutes.

Then, Aisha jumped over Reldeh, sending the brecelet first flying though the air, then floating slowly to the bedside table.

"Thank you" she said as he embraced her. Then she took out her tongue and licked his mouth. A few moments later, they kissed. As if the scene wasn't weird enough already, Reldeh's mouth opened way more than Ara thought was possible. His jaw split into four, as well as his tongue, with each part long at least thirty centimeters. Half of his tongue entered Aisha's mouth, for a long way it seemed, while the rest of his... mouth... enveloped both the lower part of her head and her neck, as well as a bit of her shoulders. She seemed to enjoy it. Also, a lot. Reldeh began to slide two of his tentacles over her legs, enveloping them, while another one encircled her waist. Their mouth parted for a moment, probably because the magician had to take some air into her lungs. His limbs, covered by a thin layer of slimy something, sliding over her legs gave her a really pleasant feeling, though she was still wearing her long, dark purple stockings, which were getting wet from his touch. They kissed again, though it didn't really look like kissing. Two more of his limbs crawled slowly around her arms, bringing them behind her back, while another tentacle slid first under her shirt, then under her bra, and started teasing her nipples. The one encircling her waist slid between her legs, from behind her back, and began to slowly go back and forth.

For Ara, the whole thing was terrible. Not because she found it ugly or wrong, actually, it was quite a sight to enjoy, to the point she almost wanted to have a closer look, that's, before realising she was already violating Aisha's privacy way more than she would have probably allowed. The problem was that it made her way more aware of what was under her panties. Watching Aisha and Reldeh going at it made her at least a bit horny. Her heartbeat was speeding up, and she was starting having trouble keeping her voice inside her mouth. The toy between her legs kept vibrating, and vibrating, and vibrating, making her dizzy. She suddenly realized her legs were now soaked in her own love juices. The sensation, which had already been getting stronger, increased. She tensed up as a great wave of pleasure rushed through her whole body. After a few seconds, during which the vibration kept stimulating her increasing the pleasure, the feeling faded, and the toy stopped moving. But she failed to remain silent. A weak moan had escaped her mouth during her orgasm. Aisha didn't seem to have noticed, but one of Reldeh's eyes turned towards her, and exchanged a direct gaze with her.

_Oh, damn! Oh damn! They'll kill me!_

She began to curse herself for making that sound. But, much to her surprise, Reldeh did nothing, like he hadn't see her at all. But she was sure he had seen her. Maybe he just wanted to focus on Aisha for the time being. Two of his four tongues had started licking her hears, which caused the purple-haired girl to laugh a bit between her moaning. The two tentacles which were restraining her arms strentched out, one going over her small breast, the other sliding under her panties, directly stimulating her lower parts. Her moans got louder. Her face red, not much redder than Reldeh's one though, she looked at him in the eyes. Well, at least two of the three he had.

"Stop teasing me like this..." she said with a seductive voice.

The tentacle which had been rubbing her lower parts slid below her underwear, and gently entered her and began to move, while another one of his limb started rubbing her clit. He was going slowly but, with her breast and ears being stimulated as well, Aisha's moans soon got much louder than they had been earlier, enough to get Ara aroused.

 _That seems... nice..._ she thought. Then she realized what had just gone though her mind, and blushed madly.

"A bit... ah... faster, do you... mmhh... mind... ?"

He replied, but Ara didn't understand what he said. Still, she could see the tentacle which was thrusting inside her began to go at an higher pace. One tentacle slid over her buttocks, and began teasing her other entrance. That seemed to send her crazy. She arched her back as he pushed his limb deeper inside her. Once her spasms of pleasure were over, Reldeh released her, and she fell on top of him, panting. They kissed again, and remained like that for a good ten minutes. Then Aisha stood up and looked at her cloathes, which had been completely soaked, both by her own juices and by her lover's... coating. As well as the bed, of course.

"Ah... damn, I'd better wash these now" she said, starting to take off her clothes.

"Wanna take a bath together?" she asked.

Reldeh answered something, he looked a bit... embarassed at the idea, but he still followed Aisha in the bathroom. Which left Ara all alone in the room.

_So... what do I do now?_

She didn't really have a way to free herself, and neither to stimulate herself a bit more. Because, as much as she refused to admit it, what she had just saw made her excited. She wondered why the toy stopped vibrating exactly after her orgasm. Then, Oberon walked in. Well, more like he jumped in from the open window, landing without any sound. She looked at him, mixed feelings in her eyes.

"Wha ha yah beahn? Ih meh, wha wah yah ahtsadh te windha?"

"Can you speak in a comprensible way?"

"Ih chanh! Yah haggeh mhe!"

"Wait a moment" he said while walking up to her. Luckily, the soundproof spell was still on, so there was no danger of Aisha hearing Ara's shouts.

He considered removing her gag right away, but then decided to leave it on for a bit more. He removed Ara from the wardrobe and carried her back to her room, with almost admirable nonchalance towards her muffled... well, it was hard to understand what Ara was saying. Once they entered, he laid her down on her bed. The first thing he did after that was removing the toy from under her panties and leaving it on the bed. Ara had already buried her face in the sheets when he began to undo the ropes. Oberon took his time in doing so, and Ara had to wait a good fifteen minutes before actually being free to move again. The first thing she did was stretching her limbs, which had gotten quite numb, in a surprisingly cat-like manner. Then she turned to Oberon.

"That was way too..." she began to say with anger, as well as a few other things, easily perceptible in her voice. Oberon simply brought his index over his own mouth. That was enough to silence her. He then moved the same finger over her mouth. She followed it with her gaze, for some reason unable to avert her glance. Then he... patted her head. It wasn't the first time he did it, but it still caused her heart to race.

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Y-y... yes..." she said, once again blushing.

"That's nice" was all he said before turning his back to her.

"I'll go clean the clothes you've wet in Aisha's wardrobe" he said.

"T-t-t-that's..." she tried to say, realizing the one she was wearing needed to be washed as well, before changing subject "W-w-what about t-this?" she asked, holding the toy in her hand.

"Oh, you can keep it" he answered, like he had forgotten it's very existence. Then he simply walked out, closing the door behind him.

Ara stood there, the toy swinging from her hand, unsure on what to do.

 _Well... maybe I could give it a try..._ she thought. But then, Eun suddenly switched with her.

"Just go to sleep, Ara" she said. She locked the door, then walked to the wall and smashed her head against it as hard as she could, but switching back with Ara less than a second before the impact. The sound of something hard cracking ecoed in the room, and Ara walked back, hardly able to keep her balance, her head spinning.

"W... wha... uwaaaa..." she said before falling face down over her bed. A few seconds later, Eun took over her body again, this time for long enough for her hair and eyes to change color. She stood up, massaging her head. Upon looking at the wall, she noticed a pretty big fractune in it.

"Uhm, maybe I overdid it a bit"

Then she walked to the bathroom. The shower was waiting for her.

* * *

Roughly ten minute earlier, Raven had gone to a small room located in the basement. There were about fifteen chairs inside, what looked like a pretty big fridge, and a projector pointed towards a bare wall over which had been laid a white sheet. Near the projector was a small computer. The room, which was soundproof, was used as a sort of cinema, or at least that was what it had been built for. They didn't really use it that much. Still, Raven wanted to know what was on the cd Add had given him earlier that day. He turned the computer on, and inserted the cd. He wasn't used to using a pc, he didn't even know what they were before Eve installed one there, just like the others, but he knew how to check what was inside a cd. There were a few folders, one of which was named "seventy-fourth time". It was a video. Raven opened it. What was recorded was... probably something he shouldn't be watching, since it depicted Add and Eve having... intercourse. Also, a quite weird one. Raven closed the video.

"I guess I shouldn't have opened it" he said.

"Definitely" Eve said from behind his back.

* * *

Oberon had just finished cleaning up Aisha's clothes. She was still having a shower. Why it took her so long he knew pretty well. Since he was done, he walked out from her room and into the hallway. He had heard the sound of something crashing against a wall coming from Ara's room, and wanted to check what happened, but then two things happened. First one was, he heard the unmistakable sound of her mistress slapping someone hard in the face, coming from below. He turned to the stairs, but before he could reach them, the second thing happened.

"Still running after royal children, I see. Don't you get tired of it? Or, at least, bored?"

Oberon turned.

"What are you doing here, Karis?"


	4. Midnight Brawl

**Midnight Brawl**

Raven rubbed his cheek, which was almost pulsating due to the strength of Eve's slap, and then looked her in the eyes. In the right eye, to be more accurate. For some reason, Raven always focused on the right eye of someone, when he locked gaze with them.

"You should really do something about your habit of slapping people. You'll end up breaking someone's neck, if not skull, someday"

"Whoever that someone will be, he will deserve it"

"Yeah, sure"

"That" she said, pointing to the computer "Why do you have it?"

"Add gave it to me this morning, and asked me to give it to you"

"And why did you..."

"I was just curious. People tend to be it, you know" he interrupted her.

There were a few things he wanted to know about that video, but his left cheek told him not to ask her, for his own sake.

"Just forget what you saw" she said. She still had to change, no, to put on any expression since the start of the conversation.

"Yeah, surely" he answered. That's not exactly something one could forget at will. At least, that's what Raven thought.

He took the cd out of the computer and handed it to Eve. They exchanged a weird gaze, exchange which lasted roughly three minutes, before actually heading out of the room.

* * *

"I really don't think it's that fine for you to be here" Oberon said, looking at another one of his old acquaintances. One he had knew for roughly as long as he had knew Eun.

"I'm just looking for someone, really" Karis said.

She looked pretty much like the last time he had seen her, in Sander. A bit shorter than Oberon, slender and with a pale skin which was perfectly visible through her way too revealing black and purple outfit, which really didn't cover her much more than a swimsuit would, except for her thigh-high socks and her gloves, which reached all the way up to her shoulders. Her heeled shoes didn't reach the ground, just like her tail, since she was floating in mid-air. Obviously, she was able to do that without actually moving her wings, which were quite similar to those of a bat. Her crimson hair was tied up into two strands behind her black and purple horns. Still, what was really entrancing about her wasn't her outfit, nor the perfectly shaped body, and not ever the body parts which showed off her being a succubus. It was her expression. Her blood-colored eyes, inside which one could get lost, her canines showing off a bit from her mouth, her smile, which was impossibly innocent and malicious at the same time. That was something Oberon could find only when looking at her. As beautiful as Eun was, and as similar as her eyes were to Karis's ones, at least while she was in that form, there simply was something about the demon queen which he just couldn't figure out, something Eun lacked.

"And who are you looking for in this place?"

Karis leaned over to him, her face between her hands, her elbows resting in the air. Physics had never really been real for her.

"A bat. He's roughly the same size of a soccer ball, and pretty much shares the same shape as well"

"He's been haning around this house"

"Around that little flat-chested magician, right?"

"Yes"

"That damned pervert"

"Coming from you, that sounds quite amusing. Especially if you consider that that word had been invented after humans got in touch with your kind"

"Really?" she asked with that playful voice of hers, the same voice which almost caused shivers to run down Oberon's spine.

"I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out it's actually true"

She walked towards him on all four, in a way which somewhat resembled a cat, while still floating in the air. When she reached him, she brought her mouth next to his right ear.

"Well then, what about tasting how perverted I am? Just like you did back then?" she said.

She was charming. Everything about her was. If Eun had something otherworldly about her, Karis was what he would define as completely, and alternatively, earthly. Well, maybe phisical would have been just as good of a definition for her.

"I have a few things to do now, you know"

"Oh, come on. It's been really a while since we last saw each other, and an awfully longer time since we last talked" she answered back, with a voice even more mischievous than before.

"If you really want to talk, come back later"

"Are you worried about me for what your friends would do if they find me here? That's cute of you"

"If anything, I'm worried about what you would do to them if they find you"

"And this is typical of you"

She smiled again. This time, though, her expression had something which was close to being creepy. Not like he wasn't used to that. Oberon turned his back, and Karis disappeared. She had first turned into a cloud of bats, which then disappeared like they were made of mist. Then, before he could reach the stairs, Eve walked up from the ground floor. She looked at him for a few tenths of a second, then spoke.

"I'll eat dinner in my room. Bring it to me there when you prepare it"

Oberon nodded, then his mistress walked to her room and closed the door behind her.

After that, nothing happend until Rena, Elsword and Elesis came back from the city. Surprisingly enough, none of the two girls had bought anything. Well, calling Rena a girl probably sounds weird considering her age, but whatever. Nothing special happened even during dinner, aside from everyone noticing Ara's particularly strong headache. Actually, nothing happened up until everyone had already gone to bed, which happened roughly at midnight. Half an hour later, Eve was still awake. She was sitting in front of her computer, examining the data she had gathered on the code she was working on. Everything had gone surprisingly smoothly that far, but she still had some tests to do. Overall there were no problems with the general system, but one of the programs included, the Queen's Throne, was giving her some trouble. It performed well when she tried it with... on Add, but it seemed to have some problems regarding its stability. The whole Code was something dating back to the war which led to the downfall of her kingdom, and she didn't manage to get all the data together, some of them were either lost or damaged, but she was confident she would be able to finish it herself. But there was something about it which didn't feel right, like there was a detail she was overlooking. Considering the help Add was giving her, she had already put a lot of time and effort into it, but Eve just couldn't shake off what humans would call a bad presentiment.

That's when something hit her window, with just enough force to cause an audible sound. She turned, and saw one of Add's dynamos floating out of her room. She stood up and walked to the window, then opened it. The dynamo went in, and projected in the air a written message.

"I'm out of the window"

That was... well, quite his style, but still, why did he bother sending one of his dynamo if he was really just outside of her room? Then again, it was already nice that he didn't break the window to get inside. She looked outside, an Add was really there, standing on a tree's branch, between her window and the ground.

"Hey" he greeted her, gesturing with his hand.

Eve simply jumped down, and landed on soft grass, her fall slowed down by her drones. Add jumped down as well.

"What do you want from me at this time of the night, Add?"

"It's about the Nemesis Code"

Eve was surprised. She didn't expect it to be something serious.

"I've gone through the whole source code a few times, and I've noticed something. The name "Proto" keeps popping out in most of the sections of the program"

"And so?"

Truth is, she had hoped for him not to notice it. She knew Add, despite his craziness, wasn't so stupid to miss something like that.

"If I'm not wrong, Proto was one of the three nasod princess before the downfall, together with you and Apple"

"Long short story, Add"

"Oberon is from those times as well, and he was one of the royal guards. Why don't you ask him if..."

"No"

"Oh, you already did?"

"No, and I won't do it. And neither will you. If this is everything you wanted to say, then I can go back to my work" she said, and turned her back. But before anything else could happen, Add grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong? Is there something I should know about..."

"Shut up!" she shouted, shaking off his hand. "I won't talk to Oberon about anything related to Proto! Not today! Not tomorrow! Never! That's all you need to know!"

Add fell silent, and they stood there, staring at each other for a few minutes. He noticed she had shadows under her eyes. That, and she looked tired.

"... if you don't want me to ask about it that's fine. But you don't look like someone who can get back to work right now"

"I'm perfectly fine"

He wasn't stupid. He suspected something ever since Eve had asked him to help her with that Code. Now he was sure there was something about it she didn't want him to know. And Oberon was probably involved. It was thrilling. Enough to make him grin. But, for now, he had in mind something which was thrilling in another way.

"Just rest for a bit, Eve"

"Yeah, maybe tomorrow"

"Well, I didn't plan to let you rest tonight anyway"

"Eh?"

One of Add's dynamos, the one which had entered Eve's room, hit her hard on the back of her head, and released a quite powerful electrical discharge. It was enough to knock her out pretty much immediatly.

"See? Had you not been this tired, you'd have notice something like this. And it wouldn't have even been enough to make you faint"

He grabbed her and placed her on his back, like she was a bag.

"You know, I like the "I force you into it today, you force me into it tomorrow" thing, but maybe we should do it normally from time to time, don't you think?" he asked her while walking away.

She didn't answer.

"Hey, are you listening to... oh, right, you've just fainted. Sorry"

Not too far away, Oberon was sitting behind a tree trunk, over a branch. He had listened to the whole conversation.

"So... it's almost time I guess. For now, let him distract you a little, mistress. You need it"

He looked at the chain attached to his neck and right arm. That thing had got heavy enough for him. It represented his loyalty. Or at least that's what he thought. Eun, on the other hand, had always had a much different opinion about it. And maybe she was right.

* * *

She slowly opened her eyes. Was it morning? The light was so strong it took her eyes almost half a minute to get used to it. And for her, that was a lot of time. Finally, she managed to really open her eyes and take a look at her surroundings. She was inside a room she didn't recognize, but which strongly resembled Add's house. Probably it was. There was a floodlight in the room, and she could see several camcorders, each and every one pointed towards her. She tried to move, but found herself restrained.

_Oh, come on. Not again._

The first thing she noticed was that she still had her black, tight outfit on. Well, most of it. Her boots were missing leaving her legs completely uncovered, and the cloth covering her shoulder and armpits had been torn off. She then examined her restrains. She was standing, her back lying against what looked like a quite big Saint Andrew's cross, which also seemed to be made of steel. Her wrists and ankles had been boud to it, forcing her in an x position. Also, her feet weren't touching the ground. Her restrains held her high enough for her to not be able to reach the floor, even if she tried to do it. She was in the middle of the room, which was rather large but empty, with only what looked like a desk covered in buttons in front of her, a bit more than two meters away from her. She could see no windows, and no doors either. Which probably meant the door she heard Add walking in though was placed behind her back. He walked in front of her, and lowered the floodlight, so that she could look him in the face without the light blinding her.

"So, slept well?"

"Just go die somewhere and start rotting already, Add"

"Oh, how lovely"

He thought about giving her the speech he had already given her while she was unconscious, but then decided it could wait.

"Why are you recording this? I mean, you always do it..."

"You do it as well when you have the lead" he interrupted her.

"... you always do it, but why did you bother making it so clear this time?" she finished, ignoring what he had said. Not like he was wrong.

"Well, I just thought it would make for a good change"

He walked a bit closer, and licked her lips. Or at least he tried, because Eve headbutted him hard. Also, due to the difference in their heights, she ended up hitting him right on the chin. Add took a few steps back and brought his right hand up to his mouth. He had heard something crack when she hit him, but it didn't seem to be that bad of an injury. And even if it was... screw that. He had better things to do at the moment than being worried about something so trivial.

"Now, now. That hurt"

"Not enough, I'd say"

He brought two of his fingers inside of his mouth to check if his teeths were alright. They were, but when he took out his hand, his index and middle fingers were a bit covered by his blood. He grinned, and touched Eve's forehead with them, before moving them around her face for a bit, gaining a killer gaze from her.

"Ah, blood really suits you, Eve. It matches your skin perfectly"

"I think I've run out of insults here. Do you mind handing me a dictionary? I mean, after you've used it to get your skull cracked as badly as possible"

At that, Add bursted out laughing, like Eve had rarely seen him. He laughed so much he had to stop to catch his breath, just to resume laughing. It took him almost ten minutes to stop, during which Eve herself smiled a bit. She didn't know if Add noticed it. When he finished, however, he was crying.

"That was amazing, Eve! Really! Did you prepare it beforehand, or did it came out spontaneously?"

Actually, the first option was the right one. But she wasn't going to tell that to him, no matter what.

"By the way, Eve. You know, I realized there is something I've never seen you do"

"And what would that be?" she asked, glaring at him.

"Oh, don't give me that look. I know you're more excited than me about this"

"You sure know how to imagine things"

He walked away from her and towards the desk.

"The thing is, I've never seen you laugh"

Hearing that, Eve froze. And, though it sounds impossible considering her already pale skin, she became even more white than before.

"Y-you're... you're joking..."

"Let me check" he replied, taking a small book out of one of his pockets. On the cover Eve could read "scipt".

_... seriously?_

He went though a few pages, then closed it and threw it away.

"No, this time I'm serious. At least according to that book"

"Listen, really. Stop"

He walked back to her. There was something missing in her gaze, and Add noticed it almost immediatly. Well, it wasn't completely missing, but the defiance in her eyes was definitely weaker than it usually was. He smiled, and rejoiced at the thought of having it all recorded. He was sure he'd not get to see that expression on her face again anytime soon.

He leaned down, and brought one of his hands over her inner thighs, slowly caressing them, while biting on her neck, with enough strenght to leave a mark on her skin.

"Uhm... stop..."

She had been tickled only once during her whole life, a really long time ago, and it was one of the most frightening things she had gone through. She wasn't exactly happy about having to go through it again.

Add found her voice exceptionally awesome that night. He walked back to the desk, and turned to Eve.

"So, Eve dear, let's get started"

He brought his hand over one of the several buttons covering the desk, and pressed it, accompanying his gesture with a quite weird "Ta-da". From the cross Eve had been bound to, right under her feet, two small, mechanical hands came out. Eve had barely enough time to wonder just how much free time Add had, to build something like that, before the tickling started. She instantly bit her lips to prevent herself from laughing, and she put so much force into it her lips soon started bleeding. Add watched, a wide grin never leaving his face. He pushed another button, and two more hands came out from the cross, this time next to her armpits. Eve was somehow holding her voice in, but she had already started sweating, and couldn't help but struggle uselessly against her restrains. Add walked up to her again, and took her chin in his hand. He then raised her head, to look her in the eyes. The blood was starting to stain her clothes, and her expression was twisted from the effort she was putting into holding her own voice down. Add moved his other hand to the top part of her dress and pulled it down, revealing her black, lace bra, but left it untouched. Instead, he moved down, to her thighs, and began licking them. Eve struggled, but there was nothing she could do to stop Add. The stimulation was starting to pile up more than she could stand, and the pain from her lips wasn't helping as much as she hoped it would. Then, Add slid one of his fingers inside of her. That took her by surpise, and made her gasp. And not only that.

"Ahh... ahahaha... ahahahahahahah!"

Eve bursted out laughing, with enough force to surprise Add. He walked back to the desk and placed his fingers over two buttons.

"Please... ahahahah... s-stop... ahah..."

"Oh, come on. You're enjoying this much more than me"

He clicked them. Two more hands came out next to her sides. They slid under her clothes and began to tickle her hips, while one more mechanical hand went to tease her belly button. By the time Add walked next to her again, tears had already began to fall from her eyes, while her laughters got even louder.

 _Nice thing this this room is soundproof_ he thought.

He bent down and moved her panties away, before starting to lick her, while teasing her other entrance with his fingers. He found out she was already wet when he began teasing her lower entrance. He already knew well how to play with her to get her moaning. In fact, within a few minutes, Add could really hear her moans of pleasure between her laughs and her panting for air. Suddenly, he stopped teasing her lower parts and walked back to the table.

"Well, Eve, I just realized I have something to do now, so I guess I'll have to go" he said.

Eve looked at him. He wasn't really sure she was even listening to him, but well, it didn't really matter to him. He clicked two more buttons, and four more hands came out from behind Eve. Two went to her inner thighs, while the other two began to toy with her breasts. He took a few seconds to enjoy her increased laughters, before opening a drawer in the table. He took something out of it, Eve didn't see what it was, and walked up to her. He smiled, well, he had been smiling the whole time to tell the truth, and covered her eyes with a strap of cloth. Then she felt him touching her private areas again, moving her panties out of the way again. This time, she could feel something small entering her, from both her entrances, three times. Or maybe four. She really was in no condition to even count something like that at the moment. She tried again to struggle, but her restraints didn't budge an inch. He then placed something, probably another of the same things he had put inside of her, on her clit, then put her panties back in place.

"I'll be back... well, before sunrise" he said, and the very moment he finished his sentence, everything he had pushed inside of her began to vibrate. That caused Eve an almost instand orgasm, which, added to the non-stop tickling, really left her out of breath. Nothing stopped, though, so she was having really an hard time not choking. Or, at least, that's how it felt like to her.

"Y-you're... ah... you're jok... ahahaha... you're joking... ?!"

"See you later, Eve dear" he said, and she could hear him walking away. She heard the door opening, and then closing. Then nothing. The only thing she could hear were the sounds she herself was doing. She called out to him, but with no response.

_Did he... really leave?! That... damn... moron!_

She had already given up on freeing herself, so the only thing she could do was... well, nothing. She kept being stimulated and tickled in a way that would have probably driven most people mad.

Meanwhile Add, who was sitting right behind her, was watching Eve on a small screen he was holding in his hands.

_I guess I'll use this as my new wake-up ringtone._

Then he heard her moaning louder than usual.

_Oh, another orgasm I guess._

He watched evetything with a smile so wide it was defying the physical structure of human faces.

* * *

Earlier, the same night, Oberon was still sitting on the same tree trunk, waiting for Add and Eve to be gone. Add's dynamo placed themselves in a circular position, and a shining, purple gate hopened inside it. Add, Eve still on his back, walked inside it, followed by his dynamo. The gate then closed behind them, and darkness took over the place again. Oberon stood up, and he was about to jump down from the tree when Karis appeared in front of him. This time, however, she wasn't floating. She was standing on her own feet.

"Weren't you looking for that overly feeded bat?"

"Well, that can wait a bit"

She slowly walked up to him, swaying her hips, and brought her mouth to his neck.

"Come on, why don't we have some fun?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper, one of her hand behind his back, the other running over his chest.

"Karis..."

He had always had some trouble resisting her, though now her charm seemed to be stronger. Well, still not enough for him. He gently pushed her away.

"It's over between us. And I know you don't mind having casual sex. I think I wouldn't really mind too if it's with you. But at least not here"

"And why is that?"

"Because..."

Then they heard a sound, like something was flying through the air at massive speed. Less than a second later, the same thing hit Karis on the head, with a thirty degree angle from above and with enough strenght to send her flying down, towards the ground. A quite loud impact could be heard, and Karis bounced on the soil a few times before stopping. The devastating impact actually had been a flying spin kick from Eun, who had jumped from either the house's roof or another tree. She landed in front of Oberon, silent as only her could be. She looked a bit different from usual. Her tails seemed more... lively than usual, stirring behind her. And, more striking than that, there were two big, fox ears coming out from her hair. It had been really a long time since Oberon last saw them. He then noticed she was half-dressed, with only her, or to be more precise, Ara's skirt and wedges covering her legs. On the upper half of her body were only the girl's bra, her net top, and her open coat. Also, her hair was loose.

 _I knew this would happen_ Oberon thought.

"So..." Eun asked, crossing her arms over her chest, her voice, ears and tails all giving off her annoyance "What is she doing here?"

"She's looking for a bat. A friend, or maybe a servant. She didn't tell me the details. I didn't ask" he answered, his tone perfectly calm.

"Oh, really?" she talked back, raising an eyebrow "That didn't look like she was looking for a bat at all. Actually, that totally seemed to be her trying to seduce you"

Oberon could feel pure anger coming from her. But, well, it was nothing new for him. Actually, it was kind of nostalgic.

"It's simple. That..." he was saying, when something came flying from below and hit Eun hard on the head, causing her to fall down, though she somehow managed to land of all fours. The thing which had hit her was picked up by Oberon, who was still on the tree. It was a bat-shaped hairpin. How had it not broken due to the force of the impact, Oberon wasn't really sure. He had a few ideas though. He looked down, to see Eun and Karis in front of each other. He simlpy sat down, bending his neck to the right a little.

"This brings back memories" he said to himself while throwing the hairpin and catching it mid-air.

Eun stood up and looked at Karis. Her eyes had turned completely black and red, with a few red veins-like marks around them, but she hadn't turned into her true form. Well, not yet.

"That was way too impolite, even for a furry animal like you!" she said, looking gaze with Eun.

"Impolite? Coming from a stalker who goes after her ex after so many centuries, that's really funny. Oh, wait, you'd never been her woman. Why again? Oh, right, that was me. You were just... how are you called? Oh, right. Concubine"

"How did you call me?!"

"With your name, I'd say" Eun mocked her, an evil smile on her face.

"You little..."

Meanwhile, Oberon was still sitting on the same tree, with no intention to move.

"Three. Two. One"

The same second he finished counting, Karis threw herself at Eun, literally, grabbing her by her shoulders and headbutting her. Eun replied by kneeing her hard in the stomach, holding her by her horns and smashing her into the ground behind herself, after having projected the succubus through the air. Karis then grabbed Eun's wrist and pulled her down. From that, it turned into a simple, almost hold-fashioned brawl, with tons of fists in the face, kicks in the stomach, ripped hair, taunts and insults, some classic, other really elaborated.

Oberon kept staring at them for the whole time, which is to say, almost four hours. He could have tried to stop them, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to do that. And, besides, he found it an amusing sight to behold. They decided to stop a couple of hours before dawn.

"We'll... settle... this... next... time..." Karis panted.

"Asheady... tired... grahnny... ?" Eun replied, the blood in her mouth preventing her from speaking normally. Also, that blood wasn't entirely hers.

"Ah... ah... ah..."

They were both barely standing on their feet, bruises, bites and claw marks all over them, their faces half-deformed by all the hit taken, their knuckles lacered, their clothes nothing more than torn tatters. An open door appeared behind Karis, and she walked, or more like, fell through it. It closed by itself and disappeared. Eun was just about to fall, when Oberon caught her from behind. She looked at him. He had taken his helmet off, and was staring at her in the eyes.

"Dihd you... shee... that... ? I... beated her... " she aksed.

"Yes, yes" he answered, patting her head and caressing her right behind her fox ears. There was an half of Eun who didn't like that act, because it made it look like he was the dominant one in their relationship. The other half, however, couldn't help but purr. At least, before falling asleep against his chest. He then took her in his arms, and, with his helmet in his hand, walked back to the house, wondering how they'd have explained that to Ara. He didn't really mind what everyone else would have thought, but at least Ara deserved an explanation. It was her body that got horribly beaten up, after all.

That night had been wonderful for him. It had brought back to his mind a lot of nice memories.


	5. Wine

**Wine**

Oberon silently walked inside the house, Eun still sleeping in his arms. He still had at least a couple of hours before someone in the house woke up. He walked to Ara's room. The door had been locked, but he had copied the key a couple of days before. He still had to inform Ara about it though. He unlocked the door and walked in. One of the windows had been left open. He took off what was left of her clothes, which is to say almost nothing, and left them on the bed, then brought her to the bathroom. He washed her using the shower, taking maybe a minute or two longer than what he really needed to clean her up. Looking at her closely, Oberon noticed just how different Ara was from the body Eun had when he first met her. He drove away that thought, then dryed her using her bathrobe and a couple of towels. Her hair took more than he had expected to dry. Her wounds, however, weren't as bad as they looked like. He brought her back to the bed, laid her on it and then opened her wardrobe. It was full of clothes which were exactly identical to the one Karis destroyed during their brawl. Well, he wasn't sure about the underwear, but he didn't believe it to be relevant. There was a small, half-hidden drawer inside the wardrobe, but he decided not to open it. He dressed her up, then looked out of the window. The night was practically over, and the sun was rising.

Oberon walked out of the room and locked the door behind him. He headed to the room he, Ophelia and Ferdinand shared, and found the maid waiting for him, her back lying against the door.

"You're already awake" he told her, stopping at an arm's length from her.

"It's not completely wrong, I would say" she replied "And you? Something happened tonight"

"Yes. Something. Nothing relevant though"

"If you say so" she answered. She didn't sound convinced. Or interested. Or... anything else.

They walked inside, closing the door behind them.

A few minutes later, the door of Ara's room slowly opened. Eun walked outside, making almost no noise while slowly walking in the hallway. She was sore, but she had gone trough far worse things during her life. That was almost nothing compared to them. She reached another door, and knocked. After two minutes she still hadn't got an answer, so she knocked again, this time with more strength. Had the door not opened, her next knock would have probably at least cracked it. Worst case, she would have forced it down. Aisha, more asleep than awake, looked at her in the eyes.

"Oh... Ara..." she yawned "What do you need at this hour...? No, wait, you're Eun... ?"

"Let me in"

"Well, ok, just what do you need?" she ask, confused, as she moved aside to let her walk in. Eun closed the door behind her, then took off her shirt. Aisha woke up a bit after seeing her bruises.

"I need you to take care of these before the others wake up"

"Wait, how did you get those?" she asked, her sleepiness gone.

"That's none of your business" she answered, quite coldly.

"... does Ara know what happened?"

"No, she doesn't, and she mustn't know. Like everyone else. Which means, you won't talk about this with anyone"

Now Aisha was annoyed. She had never really talked to Eun, at least not outside of a battle, so she couldn't really say she knew her, but her attitude surprised her. In a bad way.

"Now, listen, that's not how you ask someone a favour" she said to the fox spirit.

"I'm not asking you a favor. I'm blackmailing you"

"You're... what?"

"Either you do as I say or I tell everyone about your boyfriend. Or lover, whatever your relationship with him is"

"Ehr... what are you sayin..."

"How was he called again? Oh, right, Reldeh. That tentacle guy you sleep with whenever you get the chance"

At this, Aisha exploded. Almost literally. Her face bursted red, she began sweating, and the weak, red glow that suddenly enveloped her suggested she could throw out some fire-related spell at any moment.

"H-h-how do you know about that?!"

"Who knows"

"You... fox!" she almost shouted. Unable to come up with something offensive, she ended up stating the obvious.

"Now shut up and get to work"

"... fine"

Aisha admitted her defeat as she walked to her laboratory to get what she needed, while taking mental note of coming back at Eun somehow in the future. If possible, in the near future.

It took Aisha roughly half an hour to treat Eun's contusions. Once she was done, the fox spirit simply stood up and walked to the door, Aisha following her, like she wanted to make sure she was really going to leave the room. But before walking out, Eun suddenly turned and grabbed Aisha's face, drew her close and kissed her.

"Mmmhhh!"

She let her saliva flow inside the magician's mouth while holding her head with one hand and blocking her right wrist with the other. Unlike Karis, Eun wasn't really into that sort of thing, so she made it quick. She slowly moved her face away. There was a small trail of what looked like mist leaving Aisha's mouth and going into Eun's.

"I never came here. Nothing happened tonight"

Aisha's eyes went blank for a moment, then she collapsed. It had been so long since the last time Eun messed with someone's mind, she wasn't even sure she could still pull it off, but the results seemed fine. Well, at least she hoped so. She grabbed Aisha and moved her to the bed, then simply walked away, back to Ara's room. When everyone else in the house was just about to wake up, Eun finally went to sleep.

* * *

Raven was waiting outside, his sword stuck in the ground next to him. He was looking at a rather large tree. He then placed his mechanical hand over the trunk, and began to close his fist. His steely, sharp fingers tore and crushed the wood, until he managed to completely close his fist. Still, his arm began to shake a little before he could do it. He let go of the now deeply scarred tree, and looked at his hand. Normally, that should've been a much easier task.

"Is something wrong with your arm?" someone asked. He turned, and was Ara standing behind him.

"I see you finally decided to wake up"

"W-well, it's not that late..."

"It's midday"

"Ehm, about your arm..." she said, trying to get back on topic.

"I'll ask Eve to give it a check once she wakes up. Seems like she stood up until late last night"

"Really? She's working on something if I remember correctly. Is that what kept her awake?"

"Probably. You know her, she refuses to realize she's tired until she collapses"

"Well... yes, you're right. By the way, where are the others?"

"Rena dragged Elsword and Elesis to the city. She said something about a new clothes shop opening today, and wanted them to accompany her. As for Aisha, she went to do some shopping, or at least that's what she said"

"I see" she answered, then turned and began to walk back to the house. Raven stopped her.

"Are you ok? You seem a bit off"

"Ah, it's nothing. I'm just a bit sore. I'm not sure why though..." she replied.

"Maybe you've simply slept in an uncomfortable position?"

"... what makes you think that... ?"

"It just seems something you would do from time to time"

"..."

She stood there, without knowing how to respond to that. After a few... seconds? Hopefully they weren't minutes, she left Raven, who then proceeded to find a good spot to lie down and enjoy the sunlight, there and went back. After getting inside the house, she walked to the kitchen. There, she found Ophelia and Ferdinand sitting at the table, facing each other. Between them were two empty glasses. And a bottle of rum. They both turned to her when she entered, slowly, in an almost creepy way, then went back to look at each other's face. Ferdinand filled both the glasses. They took one each in hand and drank the content in one gulp. Looking at how much was left inside the bottle, which was rather big, they had already drank al least half a liter each. She looked at them, puzzled.

"Slept well?" Oberon asked from behind her. It almost made her jump.

"D-don't appear behind me like that!"

"I didn't appear. I walked up to you from the other room"

"That's not what I mean!" she replied. She looked cute when she shouted. At least, that's what Oberon thought. He liked how that made her cowlick hop.

Ophelia and Ferdinand looked at him. They weren't really surprised to hear Oberon talk to Ara, but they didn't really expect it either.

"Do you want to go to the city?" he asked her.

"Ehm... what?"

"I believe your knowledge of the language I used is enough to understand what I said"

"..."

She didn't really know how to answer that statement. She was weak to sarcasm. At least to Oberon's sarcasm. Or maybe she was just weak to him.

"Do I have to ask the question again?" he inquired her, bending his neck to the left.

"Ehr, well... it's ok, I think..."

"Good" he answered, then turned and started walking away.

"H-hey, wait for me!" she said, and ran after him. After that, silence fell upon the kitchen.

Ferdinand filled his and Ophelia's glasses again. He then proceeded to empty his own, again in one single gulp.

"Don't you think Oberon has been acting strangely these days?" he asked.

Ophelia looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"He seems to be getting close to that girl. That... makes him feel distant"

Ferdinand was young. Ophelia was young too, but not as much as him. Technically speaking, he was the youngest member of their group. And deep down, Ophelia believed young people to be stupid. She took her glass and emptied it, then filled it again.

"He's probably starting to think a bit about himself" she said, before emptying her own glass "To tell the truth, I don't know him that well. But he's been serving the mistress for longer than us. Far longer, I believe"

He looked at her.

"And so?"

"He's probably always been really zealous to his duties, for years. I think he is just getting tired"

"That... actually sounds terrifying"

"Explain yourself" she said, once again emptying and refilling her glass.

"For a servant to get tired of his duties... it seems wrong"

Ophelia poured more rum into her glass.

"What do you think we are?" she asked, before drinking.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think we're machines? Servants? Or something else? How do you think the mistress sees us?"

"Aren't we both those things? We're machines created to be servants. That's all there is to it"

"I disagree" she replied after having drank once more. Her voice seemed a little colder than usual.

"And Oberon is the same" continued Ferdinand.

"... I wonder..."

Ferdinand waited for her to say something else, but since she didn't, he decided to ask her what she meant. But then he changed his mind. He took the bottle and tried to fill his glass, but failed. The bottle was empty.

* * *

Ara was walking nervously through the city's streets, trying her best to think at whatever could distract her, with little to no success. Her coat was shut. Oberon was walking behind her, carrying more than half a dozen of bags. They had already visited a few shops, two of which were specialized in herbs. Another one sold clothes.

"Is there somewhere else you want to go?" he asked her.

"Yes, there would still be a place..."

"I'm right behind you"

"Ok... sure..."

"Your walking looks stiff. I'd say you're uncomfortable with something"

"T-that's your... " she began to shout, but then remembered they were in the middle of the road, with other people walking around, and lowered her voice "That's your fault"

"You're the one who didn't refuse"

"T... that's true, but..."

It happened between the house and the city, which is to say, in the middle of the forest. Oberon stopped her and took a plastic bag out of his pocket, which made Ara start to wonder if his pockets were actually bigger than they looked from the outside.

"Put them here" he said, handing her the bag.

"Put... "what" here?" she asked, though she kind of knew already what was going to happen.

"Your dress. And skirt"

That wasn't exactly what she had expected.

"... what?!"

"Is there a problem?"

"Of course th..."

Oberon bent his neck to the right, and repeated the question.

"Is there a problem?"

"... ere is... a probl..." her reply fading first into a wisper and then into nothing.

They stood there.

"W-well..."

"I understand" he said, and began to put the bag back inside his pocket. He sounded somewhat disappointed. Which is to say, he made sure to give Ara that impression.

"W-wait! I... it's fine, I'll... do it..." she said, blushing. He could hear mixed feelings in her voice.

She began to take off her shirt, but then stopped.

"C-could you, ehr, look the other way?"

"No"

"Why not?" she asked, without really expecting an answer. Not one which made sense, at least.

"You like being watched"

"That's not true!"

"It is"

"No, it's not!"

"Do you need help?"

"I can do it myself!" she replied, her face turning even redder than before.

She took her shirt and skirt off and put them inside the bag, without worrying about folding them. And that's the reason why she was walking nervously, with her coath shut. Going through the shops helped her to not think about it too much, and the fact that noone seemed to notice it kind of relaxed her, but her mind simply refused to stray from that thought for longer than three minutes.

Oberon noticed they were getting far from the shopping district, and asked her something.

"That place seems far"

"It is, at least from the principal roads of the town. It's a bit hidden between the hallways"

"Are we going there because you want to go there, or because you realized we could run into Rena and the others in the shopping district?"

"Ehr... both, I guess..." she answered before taking a turn in a side alley.

He walked right behind her. Despite him being the one who proposed to go out, all he did was follow Ara and carrying her purchases. It took them a good fifteen more minutes to reach the place they were headed for. The last two roads they walked through to get there were already pretty narrow, but the one they were in now was barely large enough for two people to walk side by side. There was light only thanks to an oil lamp hanging from the wall. Sunlight didn't reach there. There was a single shop in the alley, with a rather large door over which were written the hours during which it was open, together with what probably was the name of the store. "Chess. And more".

"This doesn't really look like a chess shop" commented Oberon. He wasn't totally wrong, but chess were really sold there. Ara walked to the door, then noticed Oberon wasn't following her.

"You're not coming in?"

"Not this time" he answered as he leaned against the wall "I'll wait you here"

"Well... ok"

"You seem more relaxed now. About walking around without your skirt and shirt on, I mean"

"Y-you don't have to remind me about that!" she shouted, blushing. Her cowlick hopped. Oberon smiled a bit, his expression hidden beneath his helmet.

"Maybe I should take that back"

Ara turned to the door, and for some reasons her coath now felt thinner that it was supposed to be, almost like it was transparent. It was just her impression though.

"You're mean" she said before grabbing the door knob. It was cold, and it's bronze color harmonized with the black with which the door was painted. She opened it, and walked in. The door closed behind her. Oberon was left alone in the small alley. Well, not really alone.

"How long do you plan on following us?" Oberon asked.

"Until I get tired I guess" replied a well-known voice. Karis floated out of the shadows and leaned mid-air, upside-down. It looked like she was on top of an invisible sofa.

"Having fun with the little girl?"

"Having fun with your search for the bat?"

"I can catch him later" she replied, before getting down on her feet and walking up to Oberon. He kind of knew what was going to happen. Or at least, what she was going to try to make happen.

"What about taking your helmet off?" she asked, slowly caressing her own lips with her fingers as she smiled.

Oberon placed the bags he was carrying on the floor and did as she asked. She walked closed, until her chest touched his, and followed the line of one of his scars with her index.

"I really don't like these" she commented.

"Because you don't like scarred men? Or because they were made by Eun?"

"You already know the answer" she answered with a low, somewhat mischievous voice. It was the second one, obviously.

Karis reached for his mouth with hers, and kissed him. He embraced her with one arm and with the other he pulled her head closer, deepening their kiss. Their tongues met and tasted each other as their saliva, if Oberon even had saliva, mixed together. Karis liked Oberon. He was the only one who could still keep calm and go slowly when she approaced him that way. Well, Eun could keep calm, too, but she'd never kiss, or do anything more intimate, with her, no matter what. Their lips parted, but only for a moment. He liked Karis. Not in the same way he liked Eun, but he liked her. She was more passionate than Eun, but she also felt somehow more distant. He ran his hand over her back, slowly caressing her spine, while his other hand went to touch her behind one of her horns. She was sensitive there. Karis embraced him back, and her hands began to ran over his body as well.

"We should stop" he said as their mouths parted again.

"What about I just put her to sleep?" she asked, her face clearly tizzy. She was talking about Ara. They could both hear her footsteps getting closer to the door.

"It would probably end like last night"

Karis sighed and walked away from him.

"We'll continue next time" she said, and smiled at him. It was her usual, impossibly malicious and innocent smile. It almost made Oberon wish for Ara to stay inside that shop a bit longer. He put his helmet back on, and she then disappeared into the shadows, just like she had previously appeared from them. A few moments later, Ara opened the door.

"Was someone here? I thought I heard you talking with someone?"

"It was just a peddler" he answered casually.

"There are peddlers around here?" she asked, surprised.

"It would seem so"

He noticed she was holding a black, decorated box in one hand and a small bag in the others.

"What did you bought?"

"Oh, this is a new chess set" she said, raising the box.

"And..."

"This is... w-well, it's nothing... really"

"Ara. Look here" he said as he raised his index finger in front of her face. She did as he said, and then he hit her on her forehead.

"Ouch! What was that for?" she asked, a bit... not really angry. More confused. He didn't really use any strenght. It just surprised her.

"You know what that was for" he simply replied.

She stared at him while massaging her forehead, then he asked something.

"Is there anywhere else you want to go?"

"No, there isn't"

"Then we can go back" he simply stated, and began to walk away.

"What about you?"

He stopped there. And turned.

"What do you mean?"

"Is there anywhere you want to go?"

"I'm fine with following others" he answered "That's all I've ever done, after all"

That took her aback. There was nothing in his voice when he said that. Nothing. He simply stated something related to his life. Something that, to Ara, sounded depressing. Something that suddenly made her realize he knew a lot of things about her, but she knew almost nothing about him. Oberon noticed his phrase had an unexpected effect on her.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"N... no, nothing"

He walked to the end of the hallway they were in and waited for Ara. Then walked behind her for the whole trip back to the house.

* * *

When they came back the sun had just started to set. They went upstairs, headed to Ara's room. They walked in, and Oberon left the bags on the table. Well, it was too small for everything to be put over it, so he had to leave a few of them next its legs. Ara, instead, left the box and the bag she was carrying on the bed. Oberon then took out Ara's skirt and shirt and handed them to her. She gave him a strange look and took them, but didn't put them back on. Instead, she left them over one of the chair and asked him to leave. He turned around. After half a minute she realized he was not going to walk out of the room, and sighed. He then heard her taking of her clothes. He could picture her face in his mind. He was sure she was blushing madly. She then walked to the door which led to the bathroom, opened it and walked in, closing it behind her. He turned. He kind of wondered why she didn't undress directly in the bathroom instead of doing it there. Then his gaze fell on the small bag she had left on the bed. He wondered what was inside, but decided not to look. He could hear the sound of Ara taking a shower. He stood there for a moment, listening to the water, then walked out.

In the hallway he found Ophelia.

"You're back"

"I'm back"

"The mistress woke up. She's doing a maintenance to Raven's arm. Ferdinand is helping her"

"I see"

"The others are downstairs. I'll start preparing dinner in twentyminutes"

"I'll join you by then"

With that said, Oberon headed to the room he and the other two shared. Ophelia, instead, walked to the door of Eve's room and stood there, like she was on guard duty. Oberon closed the door after walking in, and headed to his bed. He sat on the floor next to it, and rested his back against it. A few minutes later, someone knocked. At the window. He stood up and went to open it. Add was there, standing on his dynamo.

"I have something to ask you" he said.

Oberon didn't reply.

"Do you know something about the Nemesis Code?"

He nodded.

"Then tell me"

"The mistress wouldn't want this"

"Oh, come on, butler-boy, I'm asking this for her sake. For my curiosity as well, but also for her sake. She's working a tad too much on it"

"She would deactivate me if she ever finds out I told you anything"

"Dude, I won't tell her"

"You would"

"How do you know?"

"You're predictable"

"Really?!" he somehow managed to say despite having burst out laughing. It took him a couple of minutes to stop.

"Everyone keeps saying I'm crazy and act without a logic, and you think I'm predictable?"

"You are"

"Ancient nasods really are something else" he said, an almost horrifyingly wide smile plastered on his face "Well then, I'm off" he said as he began floating to the nearest tree. Oberon closed the window and turned. It was almost time for him and Ophelia to make dinner.

* * *

Ara was drying her hair when Eun spoke to her.

_Are you plotting something, Ara?_

"Oh, Eun. You finally decided to speak. Why did... wait, why would I be plotting something?"

_That thing you bought today._

"Oh... that..." she said in a low voice.

She left the towel she was using over her head and walked to the bed, took the bag and pulled its content out. It was a small, red book. The title was "How to approach men".

"I just... ehr..."

_First. These kind of books are useless most of the time._

"Maybe this isn't...? Maybe..." she said, not really convinced of her own words.

_Second. Regardless of that, you don't even need this. He's the one who approach you basically every time, and I believe your skills on this field are nonexistent, and thus impossible to improve._

"That's a bit hars, Eun..."

_Third. Why him?_

"Why, you ask? Well..." she sat on the bed "He's... thrilling, I guess. The last few days have been like nothing I've ever experienced before. In more than one way" she said, her cheeks turning a little red.

 _You can't have him, Ara._ Eun stated. She then cursed herself for being so straightforward.

"I know he's Eve's servant and he has his duties" she answered. Luckily, she misunderstood Eun "But... well, I'll cross that bridge once I get there"

_That's something Elsword would say. And with this, I mean it's a stupid way of thinking._

"That's not a really nice thought" she answered lightly.

Someone knocked at the door, interrupting their conversation.

"Ara? Dinner is ready" said Rena from the other side of the door.

"I'll be right there" she said while getting up and walking to the door.

_Ara. Put your clothes on before leaving the room._

She stopped and noticed she was still half naked.

"... yeah, right..."

Nothing particular happened during dinner. At least, not until Rena stood up and went to the pantry. She came out holding a dark, glass bottle. It was quite big, and also heavy, judging by the sound it made when she put it on the table. There was something written on it, but nobody seemed to be able to read it. Rena looked quite proud of that bottle.

"What's this?" asked Elsword.

"This is a four-liters bottle of Wenidol, a high-class elven wine. Lime gave it to me a few days ago. It takes almost two centuries for it to be prepared"

"That... sounds nice" commented Aisha, impressed by what she had just heard.

"Well then, let's have a taste" said Raven.

From there on, things kind of got out of control. Like, utterly, completely and irremediably out of control.


	6. A long night

**A long night**

Rena filled everyone's glass then sat down. It was kind of a special occasion, since they rarely had a drink all together like that, and it was ever more rare for Rena to bring something like that home. They all raised their glasses and made a toast.

"Kampai!"

They all emptied their globets. The wine, of a deep purplish color, was very strong-flavored, with a somehow spicy aftertaste.

"Way better than ordinary beer" commented Raven, who grabbed the bottle and proceeded to fill his glass again. And Elsword's and Aisha's too, since they asked.

"It tastes different from what I'd expected" said Aisha, who then gulped her second round "and it's also -hic- stronger..."

Elsword started laughing "You can't even stand two glasses! Your face isss all red!" he said, and went to empty his glass.

"Shut up, hiciot!" she shouted back, then turned to Rena, who was drinking her third round. "More!"

"Stop sciouting, would you?" giggled Ara.

 _This won't end well..._ Raven thought as he watched Aisha having another glass.

"I can take waaaay more than you!"

"Asssh if!"

Elsword and Aisha began a drinking contest. Rena turned to Eve, and noticed she was staring absently at her empty glass.

"Eheh..."

She filled it for her. The nasodian drinked it, and her head began to swing right and left. Rena giggled, and bursted laughing when Aran began to touch Eve's head with her finger in an attempt to accelerate the swings. Meanwhile, Raven had stole the bottle and had three more glasses. When Aisha and Elsword, who were both standing, noticed it, they turned to him.

"Hand ith back!"

"Silence" said Eve as she grabbed Ara's hand to stop her. Her head didn't stop swinging tough.

"You loooook like a cat Eve, you know?" said Ara, her voice way more cheerful than usual.

"If the writing on that cd means what I think, then she's more like a rabbit I'd say!" commented Raven. Rena and Elesis, who seemed to be still getting a grasp of things, turned first to him and then to Eve, who was walking to him. Her face was red, and maybe not only because of the wine.

"You peasant!" she shouted, and her almighty hand fell on Raven's cheek, sending him flying through the door. Which, by the way, was closed. Raven's back smashed it in flight.

"That wasss a bit too much, Eve" said Aisha as she looked for the bottle, which was now in Rena's hand. She helped herself to another round.

"It's hot here, isn't it?" she said while taking off her corset and undoing a bit her dress. At that, Aisha grabbed Elsword's glass, which for some reason wasn't empty, and threw the wine which was left inside at Rena.

"Sssstop showing oooff, you double pillow!"

Elsword bursted out laughing, while Rena, half soaked, leaned over the table, toward Aisha, and began patting her head.

"Poor little girl. Don't worry, you'll find someone who likes your small chest"

Elsword fell down, unable to stand due to his own laughters.

"You mean she'll find a girl who mistakes her for a boy! Ahahahahaha!"

"Yooou -hic- jerk!" she shouted, and pointed her hand to Elsword. A lightning erupted from it, but she failed to properly aim at him and ended up hitting the ground. Elsword didn't seem to notice any of it.

Meanwhile, Raven had returned from wherever Eve's slap had sent him, and noticed Ara was slowly walking to Oberon. Seemed like she couldn't walk straight though. She stumbled on her own feet and fell on Oberon, who absent-mindedly catched her mid-air.

"Take her to her room, she's drunk" said Eve.

"You're drunk too! Look at yourrrs fase!" shouted Elsword, who somehow managed to stand up.

"How dare you adress me so nonchalantly, you serf!" she answered back, then grabbed Raven.

"Hey!"

She threw him at Elsword, who failed to avoid him. They fell down and slid all they way to the wall. Raven hit his head hard, tried to stand up and then fell to the ground.

"Now, now" Rena said, the bottle, now considerably lighter, in her hand, as she approached Eve and rested her free hand on her shoulder.

"You shouldn't treat young people this harshly"

"Shut up, everyone!" she said as she took the bottle from Rena and gulped at least half a liter down.

"Hey! Don't -hic- keep it all to yourself!" shouted Aisha, who tried to reach her but failed to avoid the perfectly still table and fell face-down on it. Eve then threw the bottle away.

"I'm out of here, drudges" she said before turning and walking away. It took her a few seconds to realize she was facing the window and not the door, but she then decided the window had to be used as a door too, smashed it and went out from there.

Aisha, who had managed to save the bottle before it hit the ground, was now drinking from it. Meanwhile, Oberon had brought Ara to her room. He had carried her princess-style, bearing with Ara clinging to him like a cat to an hot pillow. He then grabbed her by her shirt. He first thought about leaving her on a chair, but it was probably safer for her to leave her on the bed. He did so. Ara then grabbed his hand with all the strenght she could, which is to say quite weakly.

"Keep me company for a while" she said, while giggling. Her face was all red from the wine, and it seemed like she had trouble even standing on her knees and elbow without falling.

"Tomorrow, maybe. When you're not drunk. Not this much drunk, at least"

"Come on" she replied, and pulled him down. That kind of took him by surprise. She placed herself on him and ran her hands on his helmet.

"Coome oooon..." she repeated as she leaned down on him, pressing her chest against his and smiling.

"As I've already said. Not now" he answered.

"You're soooo cold. Eheh"

"You don't like me? I do like you. Eh"

_She looks a bit like Karis now._

She took his hand and brought it down, between her legs.

"I want you here..."

He grabbed her by her coat and rolled her to his side.

"Let's make a game then"

"Ooohhh, what is it?"

"This"

He made her pull her arms out of her coat's long sleeves, without taking it off, closed it and then tied it on her using its sleeves.

"If you get out of it, then I'll keep you company" he said, and patted her head.

"This is nooot fair" she said while trying to get a bit closer to him. Which resulted in her falling face-down on the bed.

Oberon walked to the door, then turned to Ara. She was rolling over herself on the bed. He stood there for a few moments, looking at her cowlick's circular movement.

"See you tomorrow, Ara" he finally said.

"Coooome baaaaack"

He ignored her and walked out, closing the door behind him. There, in the hallway, he found Ophelia and Ferdinand.

"How are things going downstairs?" he asked.

"Normally" Ophelia responded.

"And the mistress?"

"She went out. We'll go look for her now"

"I'll stay here, in case she comes back"

Ferdinand started to walk away, but Ophelia waited for a moment.

"Oberon. If possible, save some of that wine"

"I'll try"

They nodded at each other, then she left. In the meantime, things had heated up a bit downstairs. When Oberon walked back inside the kitchen Elesis, who had somehow been forgotten by everyone else up until that moment, had just stood up. She grabbed the table, raised it and threw it at Elsword, who had drunk a bit too much to still be able to dodge that. Since nobody had bothered clearing the table, which broke into pieces upon impact, the plates, bottles, glasses and everything else that was still on it went flying and crashed, be it on the flood, on the wall, on the ceiling or on Elsword. It made enough din to snap Raven back to his senses. He looked around himself, confused. Aisha, the bottle still in her hand, was lying against him. She had probably passed out after drinking too much. He managed to stand up, grabbed Aisha and began to walk away, back to his room. Rena was too focused on Elsword recovering from the hit to notice him. He had left the bottle inside the kitchen. However, he failed to reach either his or Aisha's room. He collapsed in the middle of the hallway, upstairs. The wine, together with the hit on the head, were a bit too much for him.

Oberon walked up to the bottle, and started decanting some wine inside another, smaller jar. Then he noticed something, and looked inside the one the wine was inside. The inside of that bottle was much bigger than what it seemed to be from the outside. There had probably been at least a dozen of liters there. That explained how everyone managed to get drunk with just one bottle. Not that he really cared. He finished with the decanting, turned and leaned against a wall, looking at what was going less than four meters away from him.

Elesis was shouting at Elsword and, though her voice didn't sound much different than normal, her face showed pretty clearly that she was drunk as well.

"You kept staring at her for the whole time!" she shouted, pointing at Rena, who giggled.

"Come on, sis, that's just..." Elsword tried to reply. Apparently, the collision with the table sobered him up a bit. Well, enough to talk normally at least. Which really wasn't much, since he was still having trouble walking in a straight line.

Then Elesis's mood changed instantly. She dropped to her knees and started to blubber.

"Why do you watch her and not me?! You don't like me?! Els!"

Elsword managed to walk up to her and tried to get down on his knees to look her in the face. He almost fell down on her in the process, but he still reached her goal. Then he embraced her.

"Don't say that, sis! You know..."

"You're always thinking about her, aren't you?! When we hang out together? When we're ? Even when we make love?"

"Ohohohoh" laughed softly Rena.

 _That's not how I'd expecteded her to find out about that_ thought Oberon.

"You're wrong!" shouted Elsword, who then grabbed her face and kissed her. Which made both of them fall on the floor.

Oberon was thinking if he should have remained there of if it was better to go back to his room, or some other place, or to stay there and keep watching them for a while. He decided to go back to his room. He walked back, reached the room he shared with Ophelia and Ferdinand, left the bottle on the former's bed then sat down next to his own, his back against the wall. He was a bit surprised not to see Karis around, since what was going on downstairs was something she'd have enjoyed for sure.

Meanwhile, in the half-destroyed kitchen, Rena had just decided to join the two redheads. Elesis was lying on the floor, with her brother on top of her, holding her right wrist with one hand and her head with the other. They were still kissing when Rena pushed Elsword a bit to the side. She grabbed Elesis's left wrist with her hand and with the other she began to rub her breasts, while starting to lick her hear, earning an aroused sound from the swordswoman's lips. Elsword pulled down first her shirt and then her red, rather plain bra, slowly caressed her breast and then began to lick her nipple. It didn't seem like either of them minded Rena's presence, but that was most likely an effect of the wine, just like Rena's own actions. When both her brother and the elf moved an hand down, between her legs, she gasped softly. Rena pulled down her panties and, while Elsword began to rub her entrance, Rena started to slowly tease her clit, without bothering to remove her skirt. She squirmed a little, but they were both holding her down, so there really wasn't much she could do. The swordsman went back to kiss her, and they savored each other's tongue and droll, with the latter tasting somewhat spicy. As they kept stimulating her, she soon reached her climax, her low moans sealed by her brother's mouth still on hers. Rena then moved Elsword's head aside and kissed Elesis's forehead. A faint, green light glowed on her lips when she did so, and Elesis fell asleep. Elsword shaked her a bit.

"Hey sis... you awake? Sis?" he asked.

Rena grabbed him and dragged, almost literally, him to one of the few chairs which hadn't been hit by anything and made him sit down there.

"It seems like she already has you whenever she wants" she said while smiling and pressing her chest against his. He finally noticed her clothes had become half-transparent after being wet with the wine "But, you know, it's been almost five years since the last time I've had something different from my own fingers inside me. He keeps refusing me after all"

"Oh, I... I see" answered Elsword. Not that he was really following her. Or grasping the situation.

She grabbed his hands, used them to pull down her dress enough to reveal her green, lace bra and placed them under it, over her breasts.

"What about having me instead of her tonight?"

Elsword, still groggy from the wine, didn't really find any reasons to refuse her, and nodded. She opened his pants and, without even taking any clothes off from him of herself, sat on him. He was already hard, and she was more than aroused, from toying with Elesis.

"Sorry if I rush things a bit" she said while placing his member against her entrance "but I'm a bit impatient right now"

As she said that, Elsword moved his hands to her hips and pushed her down on himself.

"Aahh... I'd almost forgotten this feeling..."

The long abstinence, if it can be called this ways, had made her quite sensitive. Despite was she had just said, however, she began to move her hips slowly, savoring the feeling or another person moving inside her. Elsword moved half of her bra out of the way and started licking one of her nipple, while his other hand was groping her behind.

"Yes... mmhh... good boy..."

Despite her slow pace, Rena reached her climax quite quickly, and Elsword felt her insides pressing against him. She closed her arms around him and brought him closer, then started to move again, this time faster.

"A bit... ah... more..."

Following her peace, Elsword began to move as well, while bringing both his hands to the elf's chest to fondle her. She then stopped for a moment, got up and sat down on him again, this time facing the opposite direction. Elsword, now faced with her back, drew her closer and, while still feeling her breasts, began to lick her neck. He then moved one of his hands down, under her white skirt, reached her clit and began to toy with it.

"Ah! Mmnnhh... yeah... keep it up..." she said, before turning her head and holding his face against hers, locking him into a deep, long kiss. They kept going for a while, before something interrupted them. Well, not really something. Rather, someone.

"Wait, what the... what happened?! Why are you two... what?!"

An astonished Chung was standing were the door once was. He had come back, it'd seem. With a great, or horrible, if not both, timing.

"Oh, Chung... hi..." said Elsword, with more than half of his mind away.

"Welcome... mmhh... back, Chung... how... aahh, like this... have you been... mnn... ?"

"Wait wait wait, what the hell are you two... why is the kitchen half destroyed?! And... why is Elesis lying there in that state?! And you two... what?!" he shouted, like on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He let his weapon, which he was still holding, fall down on the floor with a rather loud sound.

Rena stood up, looked around and, after a few seconds, found what she was looking for. She grabbed the wine bottle and walked up to Chung, who was now covering half of his face not to see her bare chest. Chung took a step back when her breasts touched him, and Rena grabbed his shoulder.

"Here, have some. It's high quality, trust me..."

"Wait, don't tell me you went and got drunk?"

"I'm not drunk" she answered smiling, her tougue licking her own lips in a rather seductive way. She raised the bottle in front of him and took a step forward.

Chung, in response, retreated again, and ended up stumbling on his destroyer and falling down. Rena, who was still holding his shoulder, fell with him. Chung found himself in a rather awkward position.

"Come on, it will be fun" she said.

"Trust her, she's right" Elsword said from out of Chung's current field of view.

"You're not helping!"

She dragged the bottle, which somehow didn't broke, to his face, but he grabbed her by her wrists and stopped her.

"You're acting weird, Rena! Totally weird!"

"You're the one acting boring" she said, and let herself fell completely on him. This caused her chest to end up against his face, which resulted in Chung's heartbeat reaching a dangerously fast pace. He moved his hand around blindly, looking for a good spot to grab her and push her away, but before he could do so, Rena moved back a little and spilled the wine directly on his face.

"Bwah!"

Almost all of it had missed his mouth, but with the amount of wine she had showered his face with, that really didn't mean much.

_Such a weird taste... is this really wine? Wait, this is not the time for that!_

He finally found the elf's shoulders, grabbed her and pushed her to the side. He then stood up. His head was spinning a little. Elsword, who had just reached them, helped Rena to her feet. He himself almost fell down while doing so. The archer looked around herself for a moment, and realized they'd ended up in the living room. She walked up to Chung again.

"Come on, don't be such a spoiled boy..."

He stood there. He was smart, but those kind of events were something he really couldn't handle. He managed to focus his gaze on the elf's eyes, which may have been a mistake considering the seductive stare she was giving him, and stood still for a few moments.

"Oh, well... as you wish" she said, then turned the lights in the room on, found the sofa, sat on it and gestured Elsword to walk over to her.

Chung found the stairs. He stood there for a moment. Then Rena, and maybe also Elsword, started to moan from the other room. That made him hurry upstairs. In the hallway, he found Raven and Aisha on the floor.

"Well... at least they're still fully clothed..." he said.

The wine was a lot stronger than what he had first thought, since his vision was a bit off. He decided to let both Raven and Aisha there, mainly because he didn't want to wake them up, and walked to his room. He opened the door and walked in. Without even turning the light on, he went to the bed and let himself fall down on it. Then he remembered he had left the destroyed downstairs. He got back on his feet and went back to the kitchen. When he entered the room, he noticed Rena and Elsword had gone silent in the other room. He reached his weapon, but before he could grab it, someone jumped on him from behind, probably literally. For the second time, Chung found himself on the floor, with Rena on top of him. She was a bit less dressed up than before, but was still wearing most of her clothes.

"Eheh... changed your mind?" she asked.

"Wait, where's Elsword?"

"He's still on the sofa. He dried up halfway, leaving me here alone..."

"He... what? No, no, whatever, just..."

"Come on..." she said, as she brought her closed hand over his face.

She opened it, and moved what she was holding around Chung's face. That thing were her panties. Chung's mind was starting to drift away from reality, and the smell on her underwear was so strong... she leaned down on him, reached for his mouth and kissed him. He didn't push her away, nor did he try to do so. Instead, he returned the kiss. Then he suddenly stood up, grabbed Rena and raised her, holding her by her ass, and placed her on the destroyer, with her back to the ceiling and her knees on the ground. A few moments later, she felt him entering her and going back and forth violently.

"Ahh... you can go... mn... a bit... slower... ah..."

In responde, he spanked her hard, causing her to squeak in surprise.

"Mmhh... not so... ah! Rough..."

Then she felt something being stuffed inside her mouth. It took her a few moments to realize it were her panties. Which made her even more aroused. He then dragged Rena up, her back against his chest, and embraced her, carefully blocking her arms in the process. And then started to play with her breasts and clit, without slowing down his movements. Blocked like that, the elf had no other choice than enjoy the feeling. Not that she had anything against it. Just, she hadn't expected him to be so rough, probably also because she had just had sex with Elsword, who, instead, had been rather passive. He suddenly started to lick the tip of one of her ears. Hadn't she had her mouth full, that would have caused her to both moan louder and laugh a bit. She did her best to savor every moment of it, and Chung probably did the same, getting a good taste of her soft breasts and of her insides. When he felt he was about to reach his limit, in what some would call a last glimmer of sobriety, he pulled out from her. His seed ended up on her skirt, which had fallen down when he separated himself from her. He then removed the panties from her mouth, turned her face towards him and tasted her lips, her tongue, her droll. And a soft scent of wine. Then they both fell down, asleep.

* * *

His vision blurrew, and he lost connection to his own body. It lasted less than a second. Everything went back to normal almost immediatly. He knew what that meant. It was a normal routine for him. And for Ophelia and Ferdinand as well. And, to some extend, for Eve too. He just needed his periodic maintenance. Just, unlike the other two, he had to do it himself, since Eve wouldn't take care of it. His wasn't really a maintenance, to tell the truth. Calling it "harmonization" would be more accurate. He opened his upper clothes, leaving his chest exposed, and placed his right hand where humans have their heart. A square line glowed for a moment, then a small part of his chest opened. He slowly grabbed the small, shining, blue orb that was inside. It had a pentagonal and exagonal texture all over it, and was linked to his body by several cables. Also, a small part of it was black, with an irregular texture over it. That part didn't really harmonize with the rest. He closed his hand around the globe, which began to emit a faint, red light, then closed his eyes as well. It would have took a while for the process to end. Well, he wasn't hearing any noise from downstairs, which probably meant everyone had already collapsed, so it was unlikely for someone to interrupt him.

"How is my sister doing?"

"You should know that already, princess" he replied.

"Come on, I'm trying to start a conversation"

"As you wish"

There was noone to be seen in the room besides him.

* * *

When Ara finally gave up to sleep, Eun took control of her body. She stood up and shrugged off the coat. How Ara had failed to take it off was kind of a mistery for her, even considering she was drunk. It didn't really matter though. She breathed on her hand and then smelled it.

"Ughh... it reeks of wine"

She then took her sweet time in the shower. She liked having a shower. Granted, it wasn't like bathing in a lake, out in the open, in the middle of a forest, but there weren't lakes around. At least, not the kind of lakes she liked. Not too big or small, surrounded by trees, far from any kind of settlement, be it of humans, elves or any other race. Her favorite one was high on a mountain, next to a precipice. Too bad she hadn't got the chance to go back there ever since Ara partially freed her from the seal. Forcing her mind to drift away from those thoughts, Eun walked back inside the room. Her tails and hair were still sopping, and it took her a while to get them at least less soaked. Then she grabbed the quilt which was covering the bed and walked to a corner of the room. She threw it on the floor and did something she hadn't done in a very, very long time. She sat over it and snuggled, covering herself with her soft tails. She used to always sleep that way, just using leaves instead of a quilt. Oberon even slept with her like that a few times. She drove that thoughts away and closed her eyes. Soon after, she fell asleep.

* * *

Ferdinand and Ophelia found Eve in the middle of the forest, sleeping over Add. Literally. Seems like she was using him as a mattress. And looking at her, he also seemed comfortable to sleep over. He was sleeping too. Just, there was a red, hand-shaped mark on his face, and a small hole in his shirt. It had roughly the same size of Eve's heels. They decided not to move her, sat down, and simply waited. They had nothing to do, and Ophelia felt a little bit of something. Maybe it was boredom. Maybe it was something else. After a while, she decided that what she was feeling was thirst, and wondered if Oberon had managed to save some of that wine.

* * *

He had finished. The globe was no longer shining. He opened his hand and placed it back inside his chest, then closed the opening he had pulled it out from. He stood up and walked to the window. Karis was out there, waving her hand at him. He opened the window, and she floated inside. She was holding a small, black bag, apparently made of metal mesh. The bag was moving.

"You've found him, I'd say"

"It took me longer than I'd expected, to be honest" she said while sitting mid-air on nothing "He made me run around all night and due to him I have a lot of piled-up paperwork to do back at home"

"So that's why you weren't around"

She gave him a questioning look.

"Why? Did something happen?"

"Nothing special"

"Very well then" she replied, and waved her hand a bit. A red, stone-made door appeared in the middle of the room "I'd like to stay here a bit longer, but I've already delaied my duties a bit too much"

"Karis"

She turned towards him.

"If you don't find me here the next time you come by, I'll probably be around Fahrmann or on my way there, in the Northern Fluone Continent"

She knew that place. She knew it very well. That's were she had met both Oberon and Eun, with the latter being a native of that area. And where they parted.

"And why would you go back there? It's really far from here, you know?"

"I'll call you when I get the answer"

That was an unexpected answer. Karis stood there for a moment, then smiled. He looked at her charming eyes for a moment, then she turned her back to him, and left. The door disappeared a few seconds later. He then looked out of the window. The sun was rising. He would have probably worked on repairing the kitchens that day. But there was a place he was thinking to take Ara to, the next night.


	7. The Beginning of the Countdown

**The Beginning of the The Countdown**

Rena slowly woke up. Her back hurt, like she had slept on something hard, and she was feeling a little dizzy. She yawned, then stretched her legs and arms. For some reasons, she had a weird feeling in her... private areas. Still half asleep, she stood up. That's when she noticed she wasn't in her room. She was standing in the middle of the kitchen, which was in horrible conditions. The door had been smashed, one of the windows had been forcefully turned into a door, or rather, an hole in the wall, the table was lying in pieces all around the room, as well as what used to be plates, glasses and a few bottles. The bottle of wine, however, was still intact. She realized her back hurt because she really did sleep on something hard. That is, the floor. She began to slowly walk trough the room.

"What... wait... the wine... we started drinking then..."

Almost immediatly, her feet hit something. She looked down, and found Chung, lying face-down on the floor. She got to her knees, grabbed him and started to shake him.

"Chung! Chung! Are you alright? Chung!"

"Ugh... don't shout, Rena..." he replied, his eyes slowly opening. He sat down in a less uncomfortable position and rubbed his eyes a bit before really opening them.

"Wha... Rena!" he shouted, turning to the other side of the room "Your clothes!"

"What..." she said and looked down at herself, finally noticing that she was topless. And half naked in general.

She shouted, waking up Raven and Aisha, who were still sleeping in the hallway, upstairs. Covering her breasts with one arm, she began to nervously look for her bra, and found it in the middle of the room. In the meanwhile, Chung had properly closed his pants, hoping Rena had somehow failed to notice they were open. She put her green bra back on, then checked to see if there was something else important she was missing. But before she could realise it, Chung, red in face and looking at the floor, handed something to her. Her panties.

"T-these were in m-my pocket..."

Rena's face took the color of a tomato. A tasty-looking tomato.

"Why were..." she began to ask, then what happened during the night began to come to her mind. Not every single detail, but the main events. She partly covered her face with her hands.

"Oh El... Chung, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have..."

"I-I'm the one who should apologize! I didn't mean to..."

They both fell silent. The situation was simply too awkward.

"I... I'll go have a shower" Chung said, trying to both break the silence and find an excuse to put some distance between Rena and himself, since he coulnd't look at her without blushing.

"G-good idea. Guess I'll do the same"

He then walked upstairs, while Rena waited a bit more in the kitchen. In the hallway, Chung found Aisha and Raven. Rena's scream had woken them up, and now Aisha was checking Raven's head since he said it was hurting. He was sitting on the floor. Otherwise, Aisha would've had to float to check on his head due to the difference in their heights.

"Is seems like you took quite a bad thwack here. I wonder what happened..."

"Yeah... me too" he replied. He actually did remember the events from the night, but thought it was better to keep silent for now.

Then they both turned to Chung, who was looking at them.

"Chung? When did you come back?"

"... last night"

"Oh"

Another awkward silence, which lasted for a good three minutes.

"Then... did you... survive?" Raven asked, with Aisha giving him a questioning glare.

"... I'm not sure" he replied.

Then, silence again. Aisha didn't know what to say, Chung didn't want to say anything because he was afraid to somehow hint at what had happened and Raven wasn't sure he wanted to find out what Chung had gone trough while he was asleep in the hallway. After half a minute, or half an hour, they all went to their rooms. Rena, who was waiting downstairs to hear Chung closing the door of his room, finally walked to hers.

* * *

Aisha walked back to her room and waved her hand in the air. A key appeared in the lock, turned on itself a few times to close it and then disappeared. She took off her clothes, including her knee-high socks and her gloves, and threw them on the bed. They stopped mid-air and floated to the other room, whose door opened on its own to let them in and then closed, once again on his own. Now wearing only her underwear, she undid her hair and then whispered something in a language unknown to most humans. Nothing happened. She realized her voice was too low, and repeated the same lines, but a bit louder. A door appeared in the middle of the room. The usual, black, a bit gloomy door she was so used to see. Her partner walket out from it, holding a book in one of his limbs, and she kind of let herself fall on him. Reldeh caught her with his slimy limbs, and his eyes ran all over her, each indipentent from the others. Usually, if she wasn't wearing her clothes when calling him, she either wanted to take a bath togheter or... something else. And since she looked a bit tired, he guessed it was the second thing she had called him for. He told her something, in his language. He actually complained about her habit of calling him without any sort of notice. He did have a job after all. More words left his mouth.

"Well... to tell the truth I'm having a bit of an hangover right now"

He... was that a laugh? It did sound like a laugh.

"Oh, come on, it's not the first time I drink alcohol"

He replied.

"Guess you're right on that"

Then she chanted a short spell, and a weak, blue light enveloped her body. She took a few deep breaths to get used to air getting directly inside her lungs without entering her mouth - half of what the spell had to do was that - then she locked her eyes on his.

"Shall we start?"

He simply nodded. Then they started kissing, his mouth enveloping half of her head like usual. He then moved his limbs around her, gently enveloping her chest and legs as he began to... pull her inside his mouth. His body began to stretch to welcome the magician's body inside. He was doing it slowly, both because he wasn't used to put something so big inside his mouth, at least not without chewing it, and because Aisha once told him she liked it that way. And, after all, he could savor the taste of human flesh better that way. Granted, he wasn't going to eat her, or rather, she wasn't going to get digested, but he could still feel her flesh's flavor. She had a faint wine taste mixed in that day. It took him almost ten minutes to completely get her inside his mouth. Or rather, his body, which was now visibly swollen. Usually, she would stay there for a couple of hours before getting out, which meant he had a couple of hours to enjoy her taste. He then walked to her desk, sat down and opened the book he had brought over. Then he get to work. Paperwork, that is. Good, old, boring paperwork dropped on him by a lazy colleague.

Aisha moved around a bit, getting herself in a more comfortable position, a bit similar to a fetal one. Her spell protecting her from both Reldeh's digestive fluids and asphyxiation, she was enjoying the warmth of his flesh. The inner side. It was even more slimy than the outside, but she didn't really mind. She could feel his blood flowing through his veins. To her, it almost feel like a massage. But what she really loved was another thing. His heartbeat. Irregular, yet harmonious, almost like a song, it echoed inside of him and reached Aisha through his every fiber. The magician closed her eyes and let his body cradle her.

* * *

Ara slowly opened her eyes. She felt a bit fuzzy, and her limbs were kind of stiff. She yawned, then got up. And noticed she wasn't on the bed. The quilt had been thrown on the floor, and it would seem that she had slept on it. That was unusual. Then again, the whole last night had been unusual. Last night... what happened? She could remember everything up to when Rena showed them a large bottle of wine. Then they drank it and... and something. She tried to remember the events of that night, but all that came to her mind were small details. Like Eve's head swinging left and right. Which was really something out of the ordinary. She looked around for her clothes, found them on the table and put them on. Then she looked out of the window. And noticed it was way past midday. Which actually explained what that strange feeling in her belly was. Hunger. She walked out of her room and down to the kitchen. There, she found Oberon and Ophelia. And an half - destroyed kitchen. Or, at least, that's what she had expected, though she wasn't sure why. However, the room was perfectly clean and tidy. So much it was almost scary. The two nasods were sitting at the table - Ara could have sworn that wasn't the same table they had had dinner on the previous day - drinking something. Or at least Ophelia was, since Oberon still had his helmet on. When she walked in, they both turned towards her. He bent his neck to the left after seeing her.

"Slept in well?" he asked.

"Yes, I guess yes... where are the others?"

"Elsword and Elesis are resting in their rooms. Aisha is taking a nap. Rena went out before lunch and hasn't come back yet. Raven went to take a walk, probably to sober up completely. Chung..."

"Chung came back?"

"With an amusing timing, yesterday night"

"What do you mean?"

"It's better if you ask him directly, if you really want to know. He should be in the city right now"

"What about Eve?"

"The mistress is with Add" answered Ophelia.

... was that the first time she had ever spoke with her? Probably. Her voice sounded new to Ara. It was... not really different from how she had imagined it, simply because she had never imagined it to begin with.

"And you are standing in the kitchen"

"... the last part wasn't really needed..."

Then she remembered she was hungry, and went to check the pantry. While she was looking for food, Ara heard a noise coming from the kitchen. A sort of "clack". Without paying that too much attention, she kept searching. After a few minutes, she came back with what looked like a medium - sized cake. Almost a third of it was missing. Oberon wondered if it was because she had already eaten what was missing or if she simply found it already like that.

"... eh... did I... miss something?" Ara asked.

Oberon was now standing behind Ophelia, who was still sitting, perfectly relaxed. The back of her head, however, was... open. Literally. He had pulled what looked like a panel placed on her head down, and under it there were more circuits than Ara could count. Most of them were glowing weakly.

"Nothing special. A small check" she replied.

Oberon leaned down and began to run his index over her open head.

"This is the left eye, correct?" he asked as he touched a small cable.

"Correct"

Ara walked to one of the chair without taking her eyes off them, which actually almost caused her to stumble on her own feet, and sat down. Oberon's index and middle fingers, as well as his thumb, had literally turned into something between a needle and a bistoury, and he was now meddling with cables and circuits. It was something he didn't do often, mainly because it caused his fingers to become relatively fragile for a while.

"I thought Eve was the one..." Ara began to say, but she stopped when she realized she was about to say "repairing you". That sounded... not so right to her.

"It's nothing serious. I'd rather not bother the mistress with something so trivial if possible"

"I see"

Oberon pushed one of his fingers deeper inside Ophelia's head, so much Ara found it almost disturbing.

"It's a bit worse that you probably thought. Your eye's nerve cable probably cracked a bit near it's base. It should take ten minutes to fix it"

"I didn't know you were this skilled" she said. Ara wondered if it was normal to be that relaxed while someone was moving his fingers inside your head.

Oberon turned his head to the window. There, the ghost princess was standing. She looked a lot like Eve, but she was shorter, with longer hair and the glass orb in her forehead was of a lighter shade of blue, unlike her eyes, dyed with a deep crimson. She was wearing what could be bluntly described as a less frilly and more practical version of the clothes Eve usually wore, white with red lines running over it as decorations. She smiled and waved her hand at him, cheerfully. A friendly, unintended reminder of his greatest failure. He kept looking at her for a few seconds. Then, Ara turned to the window too to see what he was looking at, but found nothing. Ophelia didn't see her either.

"I used to do this often with Titania" he suddenly said as he got back to work.

"Titana?" Ara asked "Who is she?"

"My sister"

"You... have a sister?"

"I had"

"When" asked Ophelia.

"About eight thousand nine hundred years ago. She died while we were in the demon world"

"You were there? ... wait, how... how old are you?"

"Considering the three thousand years I've been inactive, it has been twelve thousand years since I was assembled by the Creator"

_Assembled..._

"That's... impressive..."

She really didn't know how to react. She knew he was old, but not that much. She wondered just how many things he had experienced during his life. Her thoughts were interrupted by Ophelia's question.

"By Creator, you mean..."

"The one who gave birth to our race. To the first four. A king, a queen, and two guardians. The others of the first generation were creater by the royal family, not directly by the Creator, and only a couple of centuries later"

"You never told me about this"

"I've never considered it important"

"Why were you in the demon world?"

"Because... the Creator was the illegitimate daughter of one of the demons's Great Archdukes and an human. Her rights to compete for the throne of Overlord didn't get acknowledged, and she decided to get it by force. Her plan was probably to build an army. However, she got killed by hitmen before the end of our first week of life. We found ourselves alone, and the demons started to hunt us. I'm not really sure why. It never interested me. We managed to escape to Elrios thanks to the help of another Archduchess, lady Lutecia. Once we got here, we began to build what would later become the Nasod Kingdom. We kept in contact with Lutecia, since she was basically our greatest and only ally. Humans weren't openly hostile, but they were cleary against the birth of a new kingdom, especially one devoid of organic life. Many centuries later, we helped the Archduchess resolve a major crisis in the demon world. Titania died during a revolt led by some vassals of the Archdukes. I buried her in the forest near the Nasod's royal palace. That forest doesn't exist anymore though"

His voice was... not really cold. It was just empy. No, not even that. It was... Ara didn't know how to describe it.

"This is quite interesting. I guess the fact that Nasods were created by humans was made up later by them" Ophelia said.

"They probably honestly believed that. There were no reasons to tell any of them our race's story"

He pushed his index deep inside her head again, then pulled it back.

"It should be alright now" he said as he closed the panel and his fingers went back to their usual shape.

Ophelia's eye glowed for a moment, made some mechanical sounds, like turning gears, and rotated around itself in a really inhuman way.

"I appreciate your help" she said as she stood up and simply walked away.

Oberon turned to Ara, who had been listening to them for the whole time. She did finish her cake tough.

"You don't look well"

"I'm just... surprised? Actually, more like stunned..."

"Why?"

"Your age... among other things"

"I guess it is impressive for an human after all"

She started thinking about a way to ask him more about his life without being too direct.

"You want to know something more" he said then.

"Ugh... yes... is it that easy to understand?"

"Your cowlick gave that away"

"What?"

He looked at her for a moment. Actually, for almost a minute. Then her stomach rumbled. Not so loudly, but still perfectly audible.

"Uh, this is..."

"Sit there" he said, pointing to the table "I'll take something to eat"

"You don't need to, really"

"Just sit there" he said with his usual, unreadable tone. Just like he, and deep down Ara herself, expected, she went and sat on the table. Then she began wondering why she had to sit on the table and not on a chair.

Then Oberon came back. With some rather long ropes in his hands. Actually, it was just one. But it was so long Ara mistook it for a bunch since it was still coiled.

"... now? Here? In the kitchen?!"

"Just like the first time, I'd say"

"W-well, that's true... but..."

"I'm not forcing you"

"I'm... not against it..." she said, and then realized she had taken off her coat and placed it over one of the chairs. As well as her dress. Which meant she was wearing only her bra and gloves on the upper half of her body. She blushed, but didn't put them back on. For some reason, she didn't have her net top on that day.

Under his helmet, Oberon smiled. He had never been in that kind of relationship before. However, the mere presence of the ghost princess, looking at him with a warm and somewhat childish smile from the edge of the room, prevented him from completely enjoying Ara's company. He averted his gaze from her before Ara could notice anything. He then pulled something out from his pocket. A black, blindfold. Ara realized she was actually looking forward to whatever Oberon had planned this time. He dropped the rope on the table and tied the blindfold around her face, covering only her eyes. He tied it rather tightly, so that it wouldn't fall off on its own. He made her sit close to the edge of the table, with her hands resting on it, slightly behind her, and her feet close to the table's legs. He then passed the rope around one of her wrist, knotted it, then tied it to one of the far-off legs of the table. From there he went to the other far leg of the table and then back to Ara's other wrist. He slid the rope around it, made another knot, then encircled her waist twice. From there he went back to one of her wrist, passed the rope around it two more times and then tied it to one of the closer legs of the table. After that he removed one of her wedge and firmly tied her feet to the same leg of the table, and then went to her other leg, took off the other wedge, tied the feet to the leg of the table and from there he brought the rope back to her other wrist. After sliding the rope around it two more times he knotted it one more time around her waist. And with that, he had used all the rope's length. For the while time Ara had stood perfectly still, almost holding her breath, trying to picture herself from Oberon's point of view. She waited for almost a minute, and since she didn't feel any new knots around her, she assumed he had finished, and tried to move around a bit. After squirming around a bit, she got an idea of how she had been bounded. Being like that in the kitchen was... stimulating. As much as she knew everyone else was either asleep or away, the simple fact of being tied outside from her room, not hidden somewhere, was thrilling. And aslo a bit enervating. She then heard Oberon walking aroud a bit, and some other sounds. She recognized, among them, the noise of a knife hitting a chopping board. She also sniffed a known odour. Then, he spoke.

"Open your mouth" he said.

She obeyed. She was getting used to situations like that, but not to the point of not blushing, especially after she realized he was going to feed her like that. He placed something against her lips, and Ara opened her mouth more and leaned forward a bit, then took it inside her mouth. She recognized the food immediatly, but still savored it a bit with her tongue before saying anything. A good part of it seemed to quickly, and tastily, fall apart inside her mouth. She savored it a bit longer, then swallowed it.

"Sushi. You can make sushi?"

"Yes" he said as he placed another one against her lips. Once again she leaned forward and ate it, this time a bit more rapidly than before. The third one had a different, a bit salty and sort of sweet taste, with a very slight tang. She guessed he had added a bit of soy sauce on it. The fourth one, however, wasn't sushi. It was still rice, but her tongue found the fish inside it, not placed over it. There was also what probably was an alga around it, keeping it together.

"Maki"

He patted her head twice.

"H-hey" she replied, leaning back a bit, her cheeks turning a little redder.

She heard another sound, a dull one this time. Then he slowly pushed what seemed to be rice against her mouth. For some reason, she didn't eat it in one single bite but enclosed it within her lips. It really was rice, with what probably was bittersweet sauce on it, but at the centre of the ball - actually, it was more of a cylinder than a ball - of rice there was something else. It had a slightly irregular shape, and it was alsto rather thin, but also cold and hard. There was sauce over it as well, which didn't help Ara understand what it was since it kind of covered its taste, which was extremely weak. Then Oberon placed his ear on Ara's chest, over her heart, and something else entered her mouth. She realized what she had ran her tongue over was Oberon's finger. Which meant there were now two of his fingers inside her mouth. He pushed his head against her chest, and simply listened to her heartbeat, which was rising. Since she had stopped moving her tongue, Oberon began to run his fingers inside her mouth, slowly but thoroughly. She tried to draw her head back, but couldn't really do it since she had been tied to the table. He gently grabbed her tongue and began to massage it. It was kind of ticklish. Ara's face turned even redder, but her hearbeat wasn't raising as much as she herself had expected. Then, she realized it. Oberon hat taken off his helmet. What she was feeling against her breast was his cold skin. Just as she realized it, he took a step back. She couldn't see it, but he was licking her saliva off his fingers.

"Can you... take off the blindfold?"

"Why?"

"I want to see your face"

Silence. She could feel his gaze on her, and truly wished she could also see it. A minute went by. Then two. Then probably five or six. He closed in to her, until his mouth was right next to her hear. She wondered if what she was feeling was his breath, since she wasn't really sure he could breath. Then, he licked her hear.

"Ah!"

She wavered a bit. Her heart began to beat faster. He then gently bit her ear, while stroking the back of her head with his hand. He slowly moved his mouth down to her neck, drawing a road over her skin with his cold tongue. He reached her shoulder, placed his lips against it and began to suck on her soft skin, while his other hand had moved to caress her back. His could touch was almost giving her chills.

"Mmh... don't suck... on it..."

He paid no mind to what she said and kept going. Then he stopped, and looked at the hickey on her shoulder. He then proceeded down to her navel, licked it a bit, and moved again his hand. Over her buttocks. He touched her so lightly she could hardly feel it, but it still made her jump in surprise.

"Do you remember what you said last night?" he asked.

It was a sudden, unexpected question. She tought about it for a while, but she really didn't remember much of what happened after she got... well, drunk.

"... no. Did I... say something?"

"... kind of"

"Oh. What did I..."

"Nothing" he interrupted her. Then she heard a sound, and realized he was undoing the rope.

She stopped herself before saying "already", and kept silent. Once he had completely removed the rope, he began to roll it up. Then he noticed that, for some reason, Ara was waiting for him to take off the blindfold. That... somehow made him smile. He stood there, looking at her, for a few moments before allowing her to see again. She blinked a couple of times, then saw he had put his helmet back on. A bit disappointed, she sighed. Then her gaze went to her shoulder. There was a red mark on it. She blushed a bit, then noticed Oberon was handing her her dress and coat. She put them back on. The mark on her shoulder was covered by the clothes, so she wouldn't have problems hiding it from the others. She then looked up. Oberon had disappeared from the kitchen, leaving behind a plate full of sushi, tempura and fried fruits.

"... when did he make these?"

* * *

Oberon walked back to his shared room, entered and closed the door behind him. Ophelia wasn't there.

"She's pretty" the ghost finally spoke with a somewhat childish voice "and she reminds me of my sister back when we were young"

"Mistress Eve was like that?" he asked.

"Well... no, not really. So, her name is? Ara?"

He nodded.

"She's... entertaining. It's fun to be around her"

"Really? That makes me want to hug her" she replied as she began to stroll around the room.

"Yes. You would probably get along. More than you did with Eun or Karis"

"Well... they were quite uncomfortable about me being around you. Especially Eun"

"I apologize for that"

She sighed.

"Stop apologizing, for once. It's not like that was your fault"

"I don't want to sound impolite, princess"

"Call - me - by - my - name. Come on, it's not that hard"

"Princess Proto"

Another sigh.

"I should be seeing you only during the harmonization of the cores, and that was yesterday"

She lowered her gaze and stopped walking.

"... my data are starting to leak. The compatibility subcode is starting to collapse. That's the reason. ... I'm... I'm sorry, Oberon"

"That means" he said with a calm voice, turning his head to the window "that I'm dying"

"... yes"

"The Mistress will be pleased"

Proto didn't reply. She wanted to say he was wrong, but she really wasn't sure.

"How much time do I have left?"

"I think... a week, at most"

"A week..."

Oberon found himself annoyingly indifferent to all of that.


	8. Found Out

**Found Out**

Dinner went... not so greatly that evening. And not because Rena, for reasons known only to her, decided to coock nothing but vegetables. Not that it helped, either. The air was heavy, like everyone had a bad memory of their previous dinner. Or the feeling of having a bad memory about it.

"... where is Eve?" asked Chung, trying to break trough the silence.

"If she's not here, then she's at Add's house" replied Elesis after nobody else said anything for almost ten seconds.

"Oh... right"

Silence again. There was barely any sound in the room, since the meal wasn't even that appealing, so they were all eating quite... slowly. Except Rena. Raven and Aisha were actually quite calm, but they felt the other's stiffness, and it was kind of getting to them as well.

"Why are you all so... tense?" suddenly asked Ara.

"Well..." began to say Rena, but Raven interrupted her.

"Let's just say alcohol should be kept locked away for a while"

"... what?"

* * *

At the same moment, somewhere else. Oberon was lying on what looked like an operating table. He wasn't wearing his helmet, and his chest was exposed. The blue, shining globe that was his heart was resting on a support next to him. Along the cables connecting it to Oberon's chest, there were several more cables attached to it. There were also other cables linked to Oberon's body: one in his right leg, one in his left thigh, one in each shoulder, another one in his left hand, seven in his chest, roughly where an human would have his organs, and a last one in his right eye. It felt... like nothing. He wasn't receiving any kind of stimulus from that. At least, nothing he deemed worth remembering. The black part of his core was a bit larger than it was the day before, and it also looked... different. It somehow resembled a tree's roots. He was staring with his free eye to the dozens of monitors that covered the room. They were also the only source of light, except for the faint light of his own core. He could have probably understood the calculations and elaborations displayed on those monitors if he tried, but he wasn't interested enough to try. Then, he felt something. Several data, codes and programs being uploaded and downloaded at the same time to and from him. Eve was sitting on a chair provided with wheels, her gaze running from one monitor to the other, while typing on two different keyboards at the same time. The cables linked to Oberon were plugged in what seemed to be an huge processor unit. Eve was linked to it as well, through four large cable plugged in her back. There were two more cables, smaller, attached to her head and connecting to Moby and Reby, which were lying perfectly still on the floor. Eve's eyes reflected both the data she was seeing in the monitors and the one being elaborated directly in her artificial brain, with her two drones working as external, additional processors. It had been almost an hour since she started, and she had yet to see any results. Add would have probably, no, surely been glad to help her, but that was something she wanted to do alone. And because of that she revived him, a few years earlier. She knew that restarting Oberon would have restarted the Code as well, but as long as it was inactive, it was also impossible to access to its deeper data, which were the one she needed. It still was, less than three days earlier, due to the compatibily subcode and the harmonization process, about which she knew nothing. But that code stopped working.

The truth is, she was perfectly aware of how pointless the whole thing was, but she still refused to give up. Oberon's core was being replaced and overwritten by a fragment of the original Nemesis Code, degenerated into what could be called a tumor, and due to Oberon's incompatibility with the Code itself, the process would have destroyed both of them. Without a complete and working copy of that code to replace it, the chances of isolating it to extract data from it were basically nonexistent. As long as it was hosted by a body to parasitize, the Code's deepest data were protected. She found that out after analizing Oberon's structure, after reviving him. Doing it before turned out to be impossible, due to his sistem locking itself down, probably as a reaction to the infection. With Add's help, her work made great progress, but it wasn't enough yet. She also refused to let him know anything important about it, which actually severely limited the help he could give her, but she was fine with that. However, what she knew about code writing was only what she managed to learn from her kingdom's ruins, since she had originally been created as an engineer and mechanical. The one designed to be a code writer was her sister, Apple, but she was since long gone.

She tried to upload another program inside Oberon's system, but that failed to work, just like all the others. There was still some of her little, beloved sister, Proto, inside there. Her plan was to duplicate the Code and replace the one parasitizing Oberon with the new one, since simply removing it would have destroyed both Oberon and the Code due to it being too deply connected to his core. By replacing it, she would have got the original Code isolated and free from both an host to parasitize and external programs locking it down, and from that she should have been able to retrieve Proto's data. With those, she could have effectively been able to revive her, after building a new body to download her to. As for Oberon... she really didn't care what happened to him after the replacement. Actually, she was sure nothing would have changed for him and he would have still been killed by the Code, since the substitude needed to be in the same tumoral form for the exchange to be successful. But she didn't care about him. She couldn't care. Or rather, she could hardly stand him being around, after what he did. Yet he was her only hope to get Proto back. Ironically, that hope crumbled almost completely when the compatibilty subcode started to collapse. It's true, it prevented her from working on the parasiting code, but it wal also somehow preserving it. She was still too far away from completing the Nemesis Code to attempt the replacement. She thought about disactivating Oberon to try to temporarily freeze the Nemesis Code, but the analysis told her it wouldn't have worked. She accepted the pointlessness of her efforts four hours later, in the middle of the night, when all the monitors got covered in red and purple, flashing text lines, written in what seemed to be a mix between binary code and an alphabet made of forty-seven letters. That was the signal that the Nemesis Code had started to invade the central system as well, which automatically shut itself down and disconnected Eve to prevent itself and her from being infected. She unplugged the two small cables from her head and left herself fall on the chair. Eve didn't move for at least half an hour. Oberon had a vague idea of what she was thinking about. The cables linked to him and his core began to unplug themselves, one by one, and after that the four inserted in Eve's back fell to the floor. Oberon placed his core back in his chest and stood up, closing his shirt, while Eve walked up to him. She was looking at the floor, not at him.

"It's over. I... have no use for you anymore" she said as she moved her hand to the chain linking his neck to his wrist. Five small holes opened in it, and Eve put her fingers inside them. After a minute or two, an half-regular pattern of blue lines appeared all over the chain and shone for a brief moment, before disappearing. The chain then opened, and fell to the floor with a thud.

"Walk out of that door... and please, don't show yourself in front of me again. Please"

"As you wish, Mis..."

"Don't call me like that! I'm no longer...!"

Oberon grabbed his helmet, put in back on and turned his back to her as he walked to the door. He opened it, and turned to her one last time. Proto was there. She was trying to grab her sister's hand, but she was even less than a ghost to everyone except him.

"I'll be leaving... Eve"

With that, he walked outside, closed the door behind him and waited for a moment. He heard her sobbing. He listened to her for a few seconds. Then he walked away.

* * *

Ara wasn't sleeping, despite it being really late in the night. Or really, really early in the morning. She had stayed up staring at the chessboard without a reason. Eun chatted with her for the first hour, but then she fell asleep, and just when Ara had decided to go to sleep too, she heard sounds in the hallway. When she went to look what was going on, she saw Oberon walking outside Eve's room, closing the door behing him. It was rather unusual for Eve to call Oberon that late at night, or at least that's what she thought. Also, she hadn't heard her coming back from... wherever she had been. Unless she had been there the whole time. She saw him walking away. Not to the room he shared with Ophelia and Ferdinand, but to the stairs. Wondering where he was going, Ara started following him. After a few steps she realized she was trying to make as little sound as possible, and she was also succeeding. Oberon left the house and ventured in the forest. It was dark at that hour, and clouds were covering the moon, so there wasn't much light, but it looked like he was walking a well-known road. Ara, on the other hand, was resorting to one of Eun's traits to be able to see in the dark. Her pupils had changed shape, but the color of her eyes was still changed. He kept walking for at least half an hour, if not a whole hour, and Ara had really no clue about where he was going when he suddenly stopped. She looked at the surroundings, and noticed they had reached a rather narrow but lengthy lake, completely surrounded by old, high trees. She then heard a dull sound, and when she turned, she saw Oberon walking inside the lake. She walked closer to the shore, and found his shirt and, to her surprise, his helmet. She then moved her gaze to the lake, and saw Oberon swimming leisurely through the water. Which surprised her, since she had always thought he'd just sink like a boulder, like Eve. But he didn't. She sat down and simply kept watching. Too bad he never turned his head to her, and all she could see was his black hair. Which was already something tough. After a while, Oberon disappeared below the surface of the lake. And, when he emerged, he was at six meters at most from Ara, his back turned to her. The lake, there, was deep enough for the water to almost reach his shoulder blades.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you" she replied, a bit hesitant.

He turned a bit to the right.

"How about coming in? The water isn't as cold as you may think. Rather, someone like you can probably stand this temperature without problems"

"I... don't have a swimsuit" she replied, not really surprised by his ignoring her question.

"You don't really need one. Just take off your clothes and get in the water"

"... seriously?" she asked, blushing.

"It has been a long time since I last swam together with someone" he replied after a short silence.

Ara tought about it for a few seconds.

"... ok..." she said.

She had expected Oberon to turn her way when she started taking off her clothes, but he didn't. He kept standing there, looking either at the moon or at the sky. The air wasn't really cold, and during her journey with the others, she had developed quite an high resistance to high and low temperatures, so she was fine even when naked. Well, almost fine, since just standing naked, out in the open, was enough to make her heartbeat rise. She decided to keep at least her panties on. She left all her other clothes next to Oberon's and headed towards him. The water was rather cold, but just like Oberon said, it was hardly a bother to her. After she had made a few steps into the lake, however, he dived into the water, disappearing.

"Ah, hey! Wait for me!" she shouted as she did the same and began swimming after him.

The way he moved made it hard to believe he was made of metal: not only he seemed to have no trouble at all not sinking, but he was also swimming rather fast, tough he was still slow enough for Ara to catch up to him in two minutes or so. She noticed he still had his trousers on, which made her feel somehow naive for taking off practically all her clothes. Then again, she saw only his shirt and helmet near the shore, so his being completely naked was nothing but her imagination to begin with. When she finally reached him, they were in a small part of the lake where the lakebed, despite being rather far from the shore, was close enough to the surface for them to stand on it. The water almost reached up to Ara's shoulders. She bent her knees a bit, to make sure her breasts weren't too exposed. Oberon was at half a meter from her. And, finally, he turned around. His face was... closer to how she had imagined it to be than she had expected. Except for those four long scars. Oddly enough, they seemed somewhat familiar.

"It's not the same, without moonfishes lighting the water" he said.

"You know about them?" she asked, surprised. They were found only in Fahrmann's forests, and even there it wasn't that easy to actually get to see them. They were a rare kind of fish that glowed during the night, with a different intensity linked to the moon's current phase.

"There was a time when I used to swim in a lake rather full of them"

He walked up to her. She blushed, far too conscious of her almost complete nakedness. And she wasn't even sure he couldn't see her bosom trough the water.

"You've been staring at these it seems" he said, pointing to his scars.

"Ah, ehr... I was just wondering... I thought nasods didn't have scars..." she said, not really sure about what she meant with that sentence.

"I decided to keep these" he replied.

"Why?"

"As a memory, I guess. Or maybe I simply deserved that"

He reached out to her head and touched her long, wet hair.

"You look better with your cowlick. But wet hair suits you too"

"Ehm... thank you... ?"

Then, to change subject, she asked him something.

"Aren't your trousers in the way?"

"They're waterproof"

"Oh..."

Ara felt... outsmarted? Or something similar to that. She wasn't sure. And that's when she finally noticed it.

"The chain..."

"The short version is that I've been fired"

"What?"

"I'm no longer bound to Eve. And, to be honest, it's a bit disappointing"

"Why?"

He looked up to the moon.

"I've been someone's servant ever since I was assembled, and I always believed I'd have still be one on my last day. Suddenly having that certainty gone is... not really enjoyable"

She fell silent. There were two things she wanted to ask him. One was why did Eve suddenly turn him away. The other was...

"And what is it that you find enjoyable?"

He lowered first his gaze and then his head, and took a step towards her. Then another. They were so close he could feel her breath. Ara, on the other hand, noticed he either wasn't breathing, or was doing it so slightly she couldn't perceive it despite his nearness. Her heartbeat rose. He put his right index on her forehed, and slowly moved it down the side of her face, all the way to her neck, then placed his hand on her back, between her shoulder blades.

"You're fun. You're naive, yet you aren't stupid. You're actually stronger than most of your comrades, but your appearence makes you look vulnerable. You can plan your moves well in advance and foresee your opponent's one, which is why you're nearly unbeatable at chess, but you can't read other people's thoughts at all when it comes to everyday's life, and that's why you end up acting as an obtuse girl. You're shy, yet your wardrobe is full of what can be called sexy underwear"

The last part was probably caused by Eun's influence, but Oberon refrained from saying that. He smiled as her cheeks got redder.

"D-don't say things like that out of the blue..."

He grabbed her hand and brought it to his face, closed his eyes and then... smelled it.

"You're warm. And while I don't have a good sense of smell, I can tell you have a nice scent"

"H-hem... herr..."

He began to lick her hand, gently, between her fingers. Ara had no idea how to react to that, her heart racing like never before, as he slowly moved his tongue up her arm. He moved Ara's hand away from her, making her stretch her arm, while he grabbed her other hand with his free one and hold it still. He kept licking her soft skin, slowly moving towards her shoulder. His tongue was even colder than his skin, to the point it was sending chills down Ara's spine. Ara noticed there was no droll coming from his mouth. Because he didn't want it. He had complete control over what for humans would be salivary glands. Not that she could know that. He then reached her shoulder, and bit down gently on it.

"Ah... "

He then moved her hand up, raising her arm, and sniffed her armpit. Ara's redness became even more intense. He moved slowly up to her neck, kissing down softly. And then he sucked her skin, gently.

"Ah! Don't!" she said, trying to move away "That will leave a mark!"

He smiled, tough Ara couldn't see that because of where Oberon's face was. He moved his face a bit, and sucked again. She tried to push him away, but without much determination. He then placed his face right in front of hers. They stared at each other's eyes for a few seconds. Ara could have sworn they'd stood like that for at least half an hour tough. Then she moved her face up, closer to his. Their lips grew closer and closer. And then, it happened. It lasted less than a moment. A normal person probably wouldn't even have noticed it. Ara's eyes had changed, replaced by Eun's ones. He moved his hand and placed his finger on her mouth, gently pushing her away.

"It's... better if we stop" he said.

"Why?" she asked, confused. Apparently, she wasn't aware of what just happened.

Oberon then embraced her. Ara didn't refuse him.

"... you're warm... here..." she said, placing her hand on his chest, where is core was "and... it's beating..."

"That's not what you think it is"

She looked at him with an inquiring yet innocent gaze. He took two steps back, opened his chest and grabbed his blue, faintly shining core, taking it out from his own body. Ara immediatly noticed something was wrong, even tough that was her first time seeing it. There was something black and small, resembling a tree's roots, on it, expanding both over and inside it. A few small protuberance were reaching for the cables linking the globe to Oberon's chest. But what was really disturbing was it's pulsing.

"What... is that?"

He kept silence, while placing the globe back in his chest.

"... I'll tell you one of these days" he said.

Oberon then turned his back to Ara and dived back into the water. For some reason, Ara didn't go after him.

* * *

Oberon walked, not really aimlessly, through the forest, looking for a big-enough tree. After roughly an hour he found one, around twenty-meters high and with branches wide enough for someone to sit on them. He started to climb it, and when he reached a bough from which the sky was visible he laid down there, using his hands as a sort of bearing for his head. The sun was rising. He was sure Eun had something to tell him, since she interrupted him and Ara at the lake.

_... interrupted?_

He wondered why did he use that word. Then he smelled something.

"Hey there" said an all-too familiar voice. He turned his head to the right, to see a certain succubus floating mid hair, her back turned to the ground. Her skin had a slight purple tinge, her horns were bigger than usual, her hair, no longer tied behind her head, had a darker tint and her sclera was black instead of white. Her wings were larger and her tail much longer than the last time they met. Her clothes overall covered her a bit more than usual, and were more decorated, but also tighter. They almost looked like a second skin. Her ears were covered by two small bat wings, which were actually nothing more than an ornament.

"Why the formal appearance, Karis?"

"I just came out from the yearly meeting with the other Archdukes" she replied "And switching form isn't as easy as seems"

She then floated in front of Oberon, wrapped her tail to an higher bough and sat upside-down, her legs crossed.

"Feel like having breakfast?"

"I'll take you up on the offer" he replied as he sat on the bough and took off his helmet.

Karis gave one of her hard-to-read smiles, and snapped her fingers. A dark mist formed in front of both of them, taking the shape of what seemed to be a pair of small tables. Over each of them were three plates and a rather large glass, as well as cutlery. The food, already served, looked particularly elaborated. It was meat, and Oberon found its scent not unknown. As for the glasses, he knew that the red drink was not wine. Everything on, or rather under, Karis's table was upside down, just like her, kept in place by magic.

"Quite abundant for a breakfast" he commented.

"Well, the cook prepared a bit too much food, and I didn't feel like throwing it away"

With that, they started to eat.

"... this is human meat, isn't it?"

"A young mother" she replied "straight from my private farming"

"You breed humans as livestock?"

"It's a tradition, for the Archdukes to have this kind of personal farm. It's not that large, around an hundred or so of people. We do keep them in good condition tough. To get a good flavor when we cook them"

Oberon kept eating. The taste was actually great. Whoever cooked it knew how to do his job.

"This is the first time I don't eat this meat raw"

Proto, who was standing on air next to Oberon, gave him a rather surprised look, to which he responded bending his neck a little.

"Eun liked it that way, if I remember correctly. By the way, does she still eat humans?" Karis asked before having a sip of what clearly was blood.

"No, she gave up on that. Probably because she's currently residing inside one. Ara probably doesn't even know Eun used to do it. ... or maybe it's just that Ara's tastebuds are different from hers and it doesn't taste good anymore"

At this, Karis laughed.

"She really softened up, that fox"

"We all did"

The succubus looked at him.

"Say, do you have any plans for your corpse?"

Oberon stopped eating for a moment.

"... come again?" he asked, bending his neck a bit. Forward.

"You don't have much time left. It's quite easy to understand just by watching you. Your eyes are completely different from usual, like they're somehow darker. You seem worried about something. And your chain is gone. Either Eve died, which I know is not the case, or you are about to do so"

Oberon smiled.

"You really are something else"

"So, do you have any plans?" she inquired again.

"Not really. I was thinking about having someone bury me near my sister's grave. But that probably doesn't even exist anymore. Why are you interested in it?"

"I have a small collection in my rooms. Graves of certain people"

"That's one peculiar collection"

"I'm quite proud of it" she said, and this time Oberon could see something close to sarcasm in her smile "Yours would be the fourth"

"Do I know the other three?"

"Probably not"

After that, they kept eating in silence for a while. And then, Oberon spoke again.

"How much do you know?"

"About what?"

"This" he said, pointing to his chest.

"A bit too much, I admit"

"... were you involved?"

"Not really. My sister was. I don't think you've ever met her tough"

"If I did, then I didn't associate her with you. Is she still around?"

"She's the first grave" she replied.

"... I see"

After they had both finished eating, the plates, glasses and everything else simply disappeared.

"Well then, I'll come back to hear your reply to my question"

"I'll be waiting"

And with that, Karis disappeared. This time, she didn't walk trough a door appeared out of nowhere, but just turned into black mist, which then faded away. Oberon stood up.

"You... eated humans?"

"Eun would share her preys with me from time to time. There was a reason the villagers were scared to walk in the forest"

"That's... not really out of character for you, I guess"

Oberon smirked.

* * *

He had waited for a few hours. The first to leave was Eve, with Ferdinand at her side. Then Chung and Raven. After them Rena, Aisha, Elsword and Elesis went out as well. Oberon finally walked back to the house. It was already past midday. Just as he had expected, a certain someone was waiting for him right behind the entrance door. He walked in, closed the door, turned to her, and got slammed against the wall, her hands holding her shoulders with enough strenght to make them bleed. Not that he really had any blood tough.

"I didn't expect this" he said.

"And what is it that you expected?" asked Eun.

Oberon took off his helmet and pointed to his scars.

"A few more of these" he said "at the very least"

She lifted him by force and threw him against the floor. He'd not get hurt by something like that, but doing it helped her to calm down a bit. Just a little bit.

"What are you planning to do with Ara? Do you want to deflower her or what?"

"I'm really not sure I'd do that" he replied while getting up "And I don't think she wants to go that far with me"

At that, Eun kicked him to the other side of the room. And that's something that would hurt him. He almost wanted to smile. Why, he wasn't sure.

"You know perfectly well she got attached to you! You made it so that she would!"

"To be honest, I'm happy to see it bothers you so much"

She punched him where an human would have the stomach, with enough force to make him falter.

"Tough, it's probably the chain that's making you so angry"

Eun somehow managed to refrained from doing something that would destroy the house as a side effect. He was right. Back then, he had to choose between his duties and Eun. Partially, she's the one who made him make that choice. And he didn't choose her. Yet the chain, the symbol of what he had picked over her, was now gone. She grabbed him and punched him on his ribs. She was used to him not fighting back during their quarrels - if they could be called like that - but this time she found it even more annoying than the other times.

"I won't deny that. But you haven't answered me yet. What do you want to do with Ara?" she asked again, sending another fist to his face.

However, he grabbed it before it could land. That was... something new. Something she hadn't see coming.

"I don't know, Eun. That's it, I don't know" he said.

"You don't know? You, out of all people, don't know what you're going to do? Don't give me that, Oberon, you've always had at least..."

"It wouldn't have any sense now" he interrupted her as he opened his shirt. There were a few small, black... roots, covered by an almost irregular reticule, growing on his chest, apparently from the inside.

"At this rate, I'll stop working the day after tomorrow. There's no point thinking about the future now"

Eun slowly moved her hand over his chest, and touched one of the protuberances. She recognized that feeling. It was the same aberrant feeling she had whenever she touched her.

"This is..."

Then Eun's left eye changed color, as well as a part of her hair. Some of her semitransparent tails disappeared, as well as one of her fox ears. Her mouth moved, but half of it seemed numb. The voice came out with an unusual tone.

"So.., you've known each other for a long time"

"Good afternoon, Ara" said Oberon.

"... I thought you were sleeping"

Eun's voice sounded different as well. That was the first time they were both controlling the body at the same time. There were a few conflicts, but they instinctively knew that, as long as they didn't try to move the same body part in different ways, there would have been no problems. No major ones, at least.

"Tell me everything. Now"

"That was my intention"

Oberon then turned and walked upstairs. Ara, or Eun, or rather both of them, walked behind him. They went to Ara's room, closed the door behind them and sat down on the two chairs.

"Alright. Guess I'll start from..."


	9. And So He Leaves

**And So He Leaves**

Oberon had already decided what not to tell to Ara. First of all, he wasn't going to mention Karis. He wasn't going to tell her every detail of his past anyway, and for what regarded Proto, he didn't knew in which way or how much she was really involved. And even without that, just mentioning her would have probably caused a fuss. Another thing he'd ve avoided saying was... pretty much everything about Eun's habits. Which were why she ended up being sealed, probably. That happened later though, and Oberon had no real knowledge about those events.

"It started with the royal family's thirteen generation. Apple and Eve, namely the main code writer and engineer of the capital. One of them would have succeded the queen, when the time came"

He stopped for a moment. Eve and Apple had a brother, too. But, in the end, he wasn't relevant to the story he was telling. So he decided to leave him out.

"I never served under neither Eve or Apple at that time. The queen kept me with her, though I did meet them one or two times every month. For a couple of decades, things went smoothly. The kingdom's relations with the near humans' kingdoms were a bit tense, but that was normal. They never liked having sentient machines near their doorstep. Then, Proto, the finest and most advanced product of out tecnology, arrived. Her creation was the first, and only, event celebrated by my race. Ironically, that's also what caused war with all the nearby kingdoms. Fourteen monts after her... birth, if you want to call it that way, they all demanded for her to be destroyed. I don't know how they found out about her existence. Anyhow, when our monarchs refused, conflict broke out. Normally, that wouldn't have been a real problem. Our kingdom was far superior in practically every aspect. However, the other kingdom had an ally. I don't know exactly who"

_I do have a few ideas though._

"It was likely an higher-up in the demon. Even then, we could have still won with no serious loss on our side. The war became a serius issue when Lutecia, the Archduke we were allied with, found herself unable to support us. There were uproars in her land, and she already had her hands full trying to deal with those"

"It sounds like a conspiracy" Ara said.

"I'd say it definitively was. Lutecia had many enemies, and taking out both her and us at the same time was the safest way to make sure neither of us would come back. Going back to the topic, when the frontline grew dangerously close to the capital, which was actually far from the geographical centre of the kingdom, the queen decided to send Proto away from it. That's when she assigned me as her bodyguard. Her only bodyguard. By moving only in two, we would've been harder to track down. ... Eve saw us off. Unlike her or Apple, Proto had no real task, so she spent most of her time wandering around the city far and wide, and when she wasn't, she was tagging along Eve. They grew really close during those months. Anyway, that's why I and Proto had already met several times before leaving the capital. She was... really similar to an human. Maybe too much"

"Why did Proto's existence... upset everyone so much?" Ara asked.

Oberon... smiled.

"She had been designed to be as similar to an human as possible. Eve is extremely similiar to you, and Apple was the same, but more on the outside than in the outside, at least when compared to Proto. She was a perfect imitation. However, the real deal, and the reason humans wanted her destroyed, was her ability to give birth. Biologically give birth, to every kind of biological life form we had collected data about. Humans... seemed simply unable to accept it. Well, to be honest, I believe that's just part of the deal, and whoever was helping them had promised them some sort of reward for destroying our kingdom"

He stopped. Ara was staring at him, with no idea about how to react to that.

"... did she.. ever..."

"Her pregnancies were far shorter than normal, and she didn't need a mate. She gave birth to a total of five children, before leaving the capital. Not because the queen wanted a biological family or something like that. She just wanted to collect data. The first one was a female elf. I don't know what happened to her. The second and the third one were demons. I know they were sent to Lutecia, but nothing more. The fourth and the fifth one were an human male and female, respectively. They were twins. The boy died of disease while he was still young. As for the girl... I know for sure her surname hasn't died yet"

"You've met one of her heirs?"

"They're currently living here. You know... the surname the queen gave to the twins is Sieghart. For what I know, they both had red eyes and hair"

"You're joking"

"I'm not"

"... do they... know about it?"

"I doubt it. And, to be honest, I don't really care about it"

Silence. Ara kept staring at him. She was... not really dumbfounded. Just... surprised.

"We went to the Fluone continent, and somehow managed to get inside the Xin Empire, to hide. The distance was enough for our kingdom to be practically unknown there, and it was unlikely for someone to go after Proto there, at least as long as we kept her... peculiarity a secret. We then went to the great forest which still grows near your hometown, Fahrmann. It took us a total of fifteen weeks to get there. We avoided the main roads and towns, as well as the most used crossroads. The plan was to simply wait there: the queen would have sent someone to take us back once the war was over. Anyway, that forest is where I met Eun. Two and an half years later..."

"Wait. Wait wait wait" Ara interrupted him "You can't just skip that much time like it's nothing. What happened in those months? And how did you two..."

"Became lovers?" Eun finished her question. Half of Ara's face blushed a bit.

"Well, you can't say it was love at first sight. In fact, we fought a few times during the first three weeks"

"Why?"

"I had my reasons" answered Eun "I'll tell you about them later"

Truth is, Eun wanted to eat Proto at first. And, obviously, Oberon stopped her every time she tried. They both got their scars in those fights, but they all faded away with time. Proto actually took a whole week before realizing Eun looked at her like people look at a juicy steak.

"And... why did you... stop?"

"We realized we had... mutual feelings? Though that sounds a tad too stereotypical, and is also quite inaccurate. Fact is, I and Eun were quite like extreme opposites. She was... like freedom incarnated. She always did whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, wherever she wanted. She lived alone in the forest, bound to nothing and noone, delighted in her own... vices. I found that fascinating. And... probably also terrifying"

"It was a bit different for me" Eun then spoke "It took two weeks before I could see him doing something unrelated to that br... to Proto. She didn't really order him around, no, actually, most of the times he was simply running after her, since she kind of lacked common sense, to the point she somehow seemed to lack self-preservation instinct itself. However, he always did everything with the utmost zeal, without a single protest, complain, lament or anything. Yet I could see he was satisfied with that. That was intriguing for me. And also scary"

Ara kept listening in silence. Oberon couldn't really read her face, since it was being used by Eun as well.

"We eventually talked to each other one night. Nine days later our fights ceased. Or rather, they became way less frequent"

"After that, many things happened, but it's better if you ask Eun about them another time"

Most of those things were related to either Karis messing around, Eun going out of control or the villagers trying to hunt her down. Telling Ara about any of that would have been far too troublesome.

"And why did you two... break up?"

Ara wasn't even sure that was what happened, but asked regardless.

"It happened, like I was trying to say, two and a half years later. A squad of foreign soldiers came to the forest. They were after Proto, and somehow they knew for sure she was there. And after a couple of weeks, they... seriously injured her"

 _It was my fault_ thought Eun.

She never liked Proto, or "that brat", like she used to call her. Never. She tried to, she really did, but invain. Yet, Oberon entrusted her to Eun while he was keeping the soldiers away. When a small group which had separated from the main squad found them, she should have protected her. She didn't. She... was tired or Oberon looking at that girl more than he looked at her. Proto, as carefree as she was, realized Eun wasn't going to save her. At that time, she smiled at Eun. That was when she realized she would have never, ever liked anything about that brat.

Did Oberon knew it? Eun wasn't sure. He said nothing about it to Ara, but maybe he did so for the same reason he said nothing about her eating humans on an almost regular basis back then.

"Proto didn't die. Not completely. Her sistem froze itself, and she fell into a sort of suspended animation, but that was just a delay. Had he been Eve or Apple, that would have completely prevented further damage, but she was far too similar to humans for it to work out that way. In three months, maybe two, the wound would have killed her. That's when Eun and I took different paths. I went back to the capital, while she remained in the forest. That was the last time I saw her, until you two showed up at the Halls of Water, in Hamel"

Again, he kept silent about something. He had asked Eun to go with him. And she asked him to stay there. That's when she scarred his face. It wasn't the first time. But those scars were still there. Oberon's body could repair itself quite efficiently, but he never made those four marks disappear.

"Bringing Proto back was... difficult. For the first part of the journey, I didn't care about being seen, but I soon had to avoid the main roads. I had no informations about the war's events, but being too careful would have meant not making it in time. Though, in the end, I managed to bring her back before it was too late"

He skipped the part where Eve, after seeing Proto's conditions, beated him to the point her own hands had to be repaired. He then realized the things he wasn't telling to Ara were more than those he was telling her.

"And what happened then?"

"The war was going downhill. Lutecia had disappeared, while the other kingdoms were still receiving support. That's probably one of the reasons why the Nemesis Code was created. Or rather, put to use. It was one of the two so-called "failed codes", together with the Battle Seraph Code. Both of them had been designed as mass-murder programs, and had processing requirements too great to be really implemented in a single unit, which also meant they'd never been tested. Or at least that's what I've been told. Apple decided to install the first one on Proto. The expected outcomes were three: either her system, the most advanced one among all nasods ever created, would have failed to run the Code, ending up with nothing done, or it would have failed and the Code would have completely destroyed her, or Proto would have activated it. The Nemesis Code included a self-repairing program which should have been able to repair her damage. What happened, however, was nothing like that. Proto's system did manage to run the Code, and her damage did get repaired. But she went berserker, while Apple simply disappeared. I still don't know exactly what happened, why or how. Regardless of that, we... had to terminate her. But the Nemesis Code was... even too efficient at what it had been created for. It took us four days to do overpower her, and when we finally managed, the capital had already been destroyed. There were no more than an hundred active nasods left, while before there were at least fifty thousand. I ended up destroying her myself"

Oberon looked for a moment at Proto's ghost, sitting on the floor near the door with her back turned to him, then moved his gaze to the ceiling.

"That was... a failure. Nothing more, nothing less. Eve was there when I destroyed her. But what I hit was just... the shell, you could say. The Code itself survived and crawled out of Proto in what probably was a sort of escape pod, headed towards Eve. She was the closest to Proto around, and it needed a new body to install itself in. I don't know how did the Code degenerate to such a parasitic state, but that has no importance now. When I grabbed it to stop, it infected me. A few minutes later I stopped working, but I expected that when I took hold of it. Next thing I now is that Eve reactivated me, three thousands of years later, which is to say, five years ago. Long story short, she did it in an attempt to recover Proto's data from the Nemesis Code and revive her, but now that the Code reactivated, that is no longer feasible. And since she doesn't need nor want me at her side, she freed me. And so here I am, with an upcoming death that is as inevitable as meaningless, and not even a meaningful place to die at. ... I guess that last part was stupid, wasn't it?"

"Enough of this" said Eun as a spectral, white fox walked out of Ara's body, which returned to it's normal state "I've had enough of this"

"W-wait, where are you going?" asked Ara.

"Somewhere in the forest" she replied as she literally walked through a wall and left.

 _Is she being_ _considerate to Ara?_ wondered Oberon, then he noticed Proto's ghost had left as well.

"That's the story, Ara. The short version, but still the story"

"... why... why me?" she suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you go back to Eun instead of... well... picking me?"

"Like I've told you a few minutes ago, we both made our choice back then. I... I still find her fascinating. But going back to her now would feel... somehow pathetic. And I'd say she thinks so too"

"But then... why me, of all people?"

"Because you actually noticed me" he said. Then he laughed, and it looked like he was laughing at himself "That sounded so lame, Eun would have killed me for that, but that's it"

"What do you mean with that" she asked, confused.

"In these four years, you're the only one who would actually consider me, and lather Ophelia and Ferdinand, as something more than walking machines. As much as we think about ourselves that way, I... really appreciated it. You probably didn't even notice it because you did it spontaneously, but you're the only one who would turn her gaze towards us from time to time, or really worry when one of us got damaged in battle, and not just wonder if we could keep up with the fight. I don't know about Ophelia and Ferdinand, but while I've always always acted in a way that would bring the others to that attitude towards me, I found your attentions pleasing, as unconscious as they may have been"

Ara fell silent. Was that... really true? Sure, she did act like he said, but... did the others really had that attitude towards those three? She never really paid it attentions, because... like he said, she believed her behavior to be normal. They stood there for a while, staring at each other, a wordless dialogue filling the room. Until Ara spoke.

"... and so... how much time do you have left?"

Oberon touched his chest with his hand before replying.

"Most likely, tomorrow's sunset will be the last for me. The speed at which the Code spreads is increasing. Probably, the worst case is that I won't even reach tomorrow's morning"

Ara stood up and walked to him. He noticed she was blushing.

"Then... one last time... can you...?"

Oberon's lips moved into a smile, but it was so light Ara might have not seen it. Though he was a bit surprised at her request.

"I must say, I'm surprised. A bit"

"It's just... I want... to make memories?"

 _That's so in-character for her it's almost disappointing_ he thought.

"If that's what you want" he said as he stood up "I'll go grab them" he told her as he walked out of her room.

When he came back, four or five minutes later, a few ropes in his hand, he found Ara sitting on her bed. Her coath had been left over one of the chairs, as well as her shirt, and she wasn't wearing her net top that day. Her wedges had been left near one of the bed's legs. She had also let her hair loose. Oberon stood still, savoring her red cheeks and her cowlick's fluctuations with his eyes. It went up and down with her every breath, a bit like her chest. He found that very amusing. After a couple of minutes, Ara spoke.

"Ehm... don't stare at me so much..." she asked, lowering her gaze a bit.

Oberon simply walked up to her, after closing the door behind him. He wondered for a moment why had he left it open that long, but immediatly decided not to bother himself with that thought. He leaned forward, not that much but still enough for their faces to be somewhat close.

"Do you have any preferences?"

"Well... w-what about something a... bit... more... physical... ?" she asked, her cheeks turning red, her voìce going quieter and quieter, to the point the last word came out as a whisper.

Oberon simply stared at her, and bent his neck to the right. He was... not really surprised. Not that he had expected it, either. He waited a few moments. Then decided to do something simple.

"... get up, and turn the other way" he said.

As usual, Ara did as he said. He slid the rope around her chest, over her breast, made a knot behind her back, and slid it around her once more, this time under her breast, and made one more knot. He then began to run the rope around her, and in a couple of minutes he had traced a sort of net around her torso. The rope was tight enough for Ara to clearly feel it on her skin, but not to the point it was painful. She did wonder if it would leave a mark though.

"Hold your elbows for a moment. Behind your back"

She did so. The rope then ran around her arms, with a few pauses whenever Oberon fastened it with a knot. She assumed he had secured the rope around her arms to the one tied around her chest, but coudln't be sure since it was, well, behind her back.

"Now get on your knees"

Again, she did what he said. He then ran a rope around one of her ankles, brought it to her back, slid it around her chest, and made a knot on her back. After that, he did the same with her other ankle. The rope linking it to Ara's back wasn't too short, a bit more than half her arm's length, but it still prevented her from bending her knees at more than a 90-degree angle. After a minute or two of nothing happening, Ara spoke.

"... are you... done?"

Then a black, or at least dark-colored, cloth covered her eyes.

"Yes, I'd say I'm done"

"Is the... blindfold necessary?"

"As much as you want it to be"

"... what?"

He then raised her up, holding her with an arm behind her back and the other under her knees.

"W-w-wait a moment, this is a bit..." she said, but before she could finish, he had already leaned her down, her back on the bed. The redness of her cheeks already beyond words, Ara's heart was racing. Oberon got on all-four on top of her, avoiding contant.

"Well then, what now?" he asked.

"... what?"

"What do you want me to do now?"

 _... don't ask these kind of questions..._ she thought.

"... t-t-t... touch... me..." she said. As pointless as the act was since she was blindfolded, Ara still averted her gaze. Which actually resulted in her face being pointed directly at Oberon's one, but she coudn't really see it because she was, well, blindfolded.

She felt his cold hand gently touching her shoulder, and then slowly moving down her arm. Oberon then placed his head next to hers, and touched her ear with his tongue. Which sent a small shiver down her spine. He then began to lick her ear, while his hand kept going slowly down her body.

"That... ah... tickles..."

He then gently bit on it, which made Ara let out a weak squeal. Meanwhile, is hand reached her leg, moved on her inner thigh and began to slowly massage it. He then moved his mouth to her neck and began to gently kiss down on it. Oberon then moved his free hand to her side. She felt his cold touch between the ropes. Her breath got a bit deeper. He kept doing that for a few minutes, during which she savoured his gentle touch and the cold feeling it gave her.

"A bit... m-more..." she started saying but stopped halfway.

"More what?" he asked, moving his head away from her neck.

"... a-around... m-my... c-chest..."

Knowing she could not see him, Oberon allowed himself a voiceless laugh. He then moved one of his hand around her chest, but purposely avoided her breasts.

"Like this?" he asked, an hard-to-hear playfulness in his voice.

"... please don't make me say it..." she asked.

Her cheeks somehow managed to become even redder than before.

"Alright" he answered as he moved an hand over one of her round breast.

Ara felt him gently grabbing it through her bra. He placed his other hand on her side and slowly moved it to her breast, sliding it under her bra.

"Ah..."

He gently massaged it, while his other hand kept caressing her other breast through her bra, which he then slowly pulled up. It was actually a bit hard to do without tearing it, since the ropes kind of hold it in place, but he somehow managed to do it. Ara started to sweat a little. That was... not really the first time he had seen her bare chest, since she was quite sure he had already seen it when they were at the lake, but it was embarassing nonetheless. Oberon kept gently stroking her, occasionally teasing her nipples. Ara's breath got a little faster, and she started feeling a little tingly. Her body was hot, which in turn enhanced the feeling of Oberon's cold hands over her skin. She could also feel something wet between her legs, but tried not to think about it. Then, she suddenly felt his tongue on one of her nipples. A weak moan escaped her lips.

"You don't like it?" he asked.

"That's... not it..."

"That's nice to ear" he replied.

He kept gently toying with her breasts, occasionally switching from licking one nipple to the other. Ara began to squirm a bit and move her legs around. Then she started to rub her thighs together, getting a somewhat pleasurable feeling from it. Her breath got faster again, and her sweating got more intense too. She could clearly feel something wet between her legs. Oberon then placed a knee between her thighs, stopping her from rubbing them together. He then bit gently on one of her breasts, and then on her nipple. Ara's squirming got stronger, and Oberon pushed her down a bit on the bed to keep her still.

"Ah... w-wait a moment..."

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm feeling... funny..."

"That's good to hear" he said.

"H-hey! Stop for a... ah... moment..."

Ara suddenly tensed up for a moment. She felt a not unknown sensation going through her body, similiar to that time she got tickled on her bed a few days ago. This time, however, it was sharper, tough also weaker. It didn't last as long either, and was followed by something else. She wasn't really satisfied. Her heartbeat didn't go down much, nor did her temperature. She was still sweating.

"You're enjoying yourself, it seems"

"Don't... tease me... like that..." she replied, a bit short on breath.

Oberon moved his knee away, and slowly moved his hand underneath her skirt, placing it over her panties. He moved it over her for a brief moment, softly enough that she could hardly feel it, then moved it away. Ara then felt his fingers entering her mouth. They were cold, just as she would have expected, but they were also... there was something a bit sticky - and somewhat... salty? She wasn't sure - on his fingers. Then she realized what it was, and her heartbeat rose again. She tried to say something, but Oberon placed his fingers around her tongue and ran his index over it. Ara failed to emit anything but muffled sounds. Oberon then moved his tongue slowly along her neck, licking off her sweat drops. It was... really a nice feeling. He took a long moment to enjoy her excited expression.

"Are you waiting for something?" he whispered in her ear as he took his hand out of her mouth.

"... don't ask me that..."

"You like it more this way, don't you?"

She turned her head the other way, and Oberon took the chance to lick the back of her neck too. He then moved his hand along her skin, down to her short skirt, and pulled it up. Ara felt his fingers gently poking her entrance through her panties for a few, very long moments. Oberon moved her underwear a bit to the side, and directly massaged her between her legs. Ara started panting a bit, and Oberon pushed her down a bit to stop her from moving around. He looked ar Ara's face. It had probably been around forty minutes since they started, which meant around thirtyfive minutes of teasing, though she seemed to have reached a small climax by her breasts being fondled. Oberon then slowly slid a finger inside her. Ara let out a very weak moan: it was the first time something entered her. It was a... weird feeling. She then felt him slowly moving his finger around, as if he was exploring her. Which felt really nice. Another moan left her lips when he inserted another finger. Meanwhile, Oberon kept gently touching her chest with his other hand. Once he started gently moving his two fingers back and forth, Ara started to pant a bit, weak moans escaping her mouth every now and then. Oberon then turned Ara on her side, and she felt his cold body behind her back. He kept stimulating her, while moving his other hand up and down her soft skin, while his tongue went back to savoring her ear. Ara could feel her own heart beating at full speed. Her body seemed to be on flame, and every time Oberon moved his fingers she could feel waves of heat running through her. And each wave was accompanied by a great feeling. Pleasure. She then felt a third finger entering her.

"Ah... mmh..."

"How do you feel?"

"A bit... ah... faster... please... ah!"

"You're more into this than I would have expected, you know" he said as he gently bit the base of her neck.

"Dont... say... it..." she replied.

"As you wish"

And with that, he slowly pushed two more fingers inside her. He could feel her heat, her flesh enveloping his fingers, almost sucking them in, and even her racing hearthbeat. Ara was panting now. Oberon then moved away from her, and Ara turned over, on her other side, and moved her head around, looking for him. Not that it had a point, with her eyes still being blindfolded.

"Oberon... ?"

"I'm taking off my shirt" he replied "your sweath is soaking it" he said, purposely using an exaggerated term "It does smell nice though"

It wasn't true. His shirt was waterproof. But he wanted to see her reaction.

"Just... come back here..." she said.

He didn't reply, and simply went back on the bed. He grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her on her back. Ara felt Oberon running his hands over her side and belly, stopping for a brief moment on her navel, and then reaching all the way down to her butt. Then he moved her panties again to the side, and she felt his tongue licking her entrance. Ara tried to bury her face in the sheets. That was just too embarassing. He kept licking her for a few... minutes? She really couldn't tell, then she felt his tongue entering her. It didn't reach as deep as his fingers, but it was a bit colder, and gave a different feeling. He moved it around inside her, and grabbed her side with one hand to hold her still, while moving his other hand between her legs and inserting his fingers again. Ara started to moan again, instintively closing her legs, but he stopped her from doing so.

"You're a bit salty" he said. He immediatly felt her tightening up.

"Stop... ah! Saying... ah! ... Ah, I don't care... mmh... anymore..."

Oberon moved his free hand to her rear and gently grabbed one of her buttocks as he kept gently stimulating her. Ara began to run out of breath, her back arched. Then, again, she tensed up, a wave of pleasure running through her whole body, followed by a weak, lingering, warm feeling. Oberon moved away from her lower part, and she felt his hands, wet with her juices, on the back of her neck, pulling her up. She heard his voice right in front of her face. He could feel her labored breath on his skin. Then, she pushed her head forward. For the first time, their lips met. Oberon... didn't expect that. He stood still for a moment, then opened his mouth and welcomed Ara's tongue inside, holding her head against his own with his hand. The contrast between her heat and his coldness was incredible. Oberon savored her droll as he let his own out, unlike the previous day in the lake. Their tongues ran over each other many times, their mouths parting for brief moments only for Ara to take a quick breath. Oberon then moved back a bit.

"Are you satisfied?"

"Not yet..."

Oberon suddenly embraced her. He was cold. But not as much as she'd expected.

"Are you sure? I'll stop working within tomorrow. And..."

"That's the reason. That's exactly why I'm sure. We... I won't have another chance. So..."

"... alright"

There was an unusual note in his voice. Something deep, hard to read.

Oberon laid her down on her back. Ara felt something cold, larger than his fingers, poking her entrance, and slowly, slowly entering her. At some point, she had a feeling of pressure, accompanied by a little sting and a sudden, sharp pain, which faded almost immediatly. A small trickle of blood came out from her, but it was just about enough to leave a stain on the sheets.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm... fine... you can move..."

He did so. Slowly. Ara had already had two orgasms, which left her sensitive enough for Oberon's gentle pace to still be stimulating enough. He kept moving inside her like that for a while. He found Ara's expression to be fascinating, divided between ecstasy and embarrassment. She was still half-clothed, and he wondered for a moment if that was more embarassing for her than being naked or not. Oberon then undid the ropes around her ankles, moved out of her, sat on the side of the bed, and gently placed Ara on his lap. She lowered herself down on him.

"You can move" he said softly in her ear.

Ara's face couldn't get any redder than it already was. She began to shake her hips, at first not faster than Oberon did earlier. Her breath was fast, a bit labored. He pulled her to him and kissed her. Their tongues entangled together again, as he moved an hand down to her buttocks. Their lips parted. Ara began to move a bit faster. She was moaning.

"Is it like you'd expected your first time to be?" he asked.

"It's... completely... mmh... different..."

 _That's_ _reasonable, I guess_ he thought.

"How... do you... feel?"

Oberon looked at her covered eyes for a moment. He didn't expect that quesion.

"... I don't feel physical pleasure. It has never been one of my functions"

"But then..."

He placed his hand on her chin.

"Your expression is all I need to enjoy this" he said.

That's how it was. How it had always been for him. Maybe it was because it was in utter contrast with his origin, since he had been built as a killing tool, but he always liked to physically please women. Not that he had had many in his life. Only three, actually. Four with Ara.

"Are... ah... you sure?"

"Of course"

He felt Ara tightening again as she fastened up her movement again. He ran an hand through her air as they kissed again. She reacted in a different way from both Eun and Karis. And not just because he had never tied them up. Well, he did restrain Eun once, but for a completely different reason. He did suspect that the differences were caused mainly by Ara being a virgin, unlike the other two, but he had the feeling that, even with more experience, Ara would have still been far more shy than those two. Not like it was hard, being more shy than Karis, but whatever. Then, she suddenly slowed down, then stopped.

"Is something wrong?"

"It's just... a bit too... intense..."

Oberon holded her tighter and began to move on his own, a bit faster than Ara was doing up until a few moments earlier.

"That's how it's supposed to be" he said, again to see her reaction.

"Ah! S-stop... just for a... ah!"

He started kissing her neck. Ara tried to lower herself on Oberon to give him less room for moving, but he kept her lifted up high enough not to have that kind of problem. And then, just like she had done earlier, he stopped. Ara recovered her breath a bit.

"Why did..."

Knock. A dull sound. Knock. From the door. Knock.

"Ara? Are you there?" asked Rena from the other side of the tiny barrier separating Ara's room from the hallway.

"It's not locked" Oberon whispered in her ear. A lie. Maybe an excessive one.

Ara's heart seemed to explode, at least to her.

"Y-you're back early" she said, totally failing to hide her uneasiness.

"Well... not really, it's almost time for dinner. Are you alright? Your voice sounds a bit weird"

"I-I'm fine! Perfectly fine, don't worry, I'm just... rearranging the room!"

 _You're so terrible at lying_ Oberon thought as he savored her agitated expression.

"... if you say so..."

Rena wasn't stupid. But then again, it was Ara. She really couldn't picture that girl in any sort of serious trouble. Unless she tried to prepare something to eat, but she didn't sound like she had poisoned herself. Actually, her voice seemed... a sudden, unexpected thought ran trough her mind. Ara's voice sounded worried, embarassed, but also... excited? Was she... no. Not Ara. She was far too innocent. And then again... she simply dismissed that crazy thought.

"I'll call you for dinner then" she said.

"Y-yeah, that's perfect"

No reply. After a few seconds, Oberon started moved again, and this time Ara did the same.

"K-kiss me... or she might hear me..."

"As you wish" he replied.

They kept making love until Ara reached her climax again. She arched her back, a strong pulse of heat and pleasure running through her, followed by a warm, lingering feeling. Oberon took her blindfold off and untied her hands. They lied down on the bed, and Ara rested her head on his chest. They stood like that for a while, enjoying each other's body temperature.

"You should take a shower before they call you for dinner. And also change your clothes"

"... you're right on that" she said as she stood up.

Oberon undid the ropes. They had left a light mark on her skin.

"I'll pack the sheets and leave. It would be bothersome if someone walked in right now"

Ara didn't asnwer, and just stared at his eyes for a long moment before walking to the bathroom.

"I'll be on the lakeshore" he said.

"I'll be there too" she replied.

* * *

It had been twenty one hours since then. Oberon was lying with his back against a tree, the lake at less than two meters from him, staring at the afternoon sky. There were many clouds. It was probably going to rain. A weak breeze moved his hair around a bit. His helmet was lying on the grass, next to him. The first to arrive was Karis.

"You had fun with the little girl then" she said as she sat down in front of him.

"You always know everything about this kind of things, don't you"

"That's part of my job" she said with a mischievous smile, and Oberon wondered if she was joking or not.

There were several root-looking protuberances going in and out from his body. One, in particular, crushed his right eye from the inside. Looking at him, it seemed a miracle that he was still working. That he was still alive. He could no longer move his left harm and leg, and moving the other limbs was hard. His sight was blurry. He found all that annoying, but nothing more.

"Have you decided? About your corpse"

"If noone claims it, you can take it" he said.

"Alright"

Then she simply stood up.

"I'll take my leave now" she said as he turned her back to him "I never liked watching people die"

"That's a lie"

"Let's just say I'm not in the mood right now"

And this time, she simply walked away. As soon as she disappeared into the woods, Ara appeared.

"Were you talking with someone?" she asked as she walked up to him. Ironically, she sat down exactly where Karis did.

"... an old friend" he said.

"... how do you feel?"

"Surprisingly fine"

Silence.

"Do you have something to say?" he then asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I think... I'd rather not have you see my death"

"That sounds like your last wish"

He laughed. His voice was getting weaker.

"Yes, it does seem that"

"... if that's what you want"

Ara stood up and walked away. She didn't really leave. She just walked away.

Eun didn't.

"This is the end then" the fox ghost said.

"The second one. I really hope there won't be a third"

"You sound really unconcerned"

"I wonder if I really am"

"... I wouldn't have ignored you, had you told me about this"

"That's why I kept silent"

"So... this is a farewell. The last one"

"It is"

"Farewell then"

"Take care of Ara"

"You don't need to tell me that"

"I know"

And with that, Eun left.

The last one was Proto. Her ghost. She was fading, like she was made of mist and the weak breeze was affecting her. She opened her mouth, but Oberon didn't ear a word. He left himself fall against the tree, his head pointed to the sky. Proto walked next to him and lied against the tree too, her head on his chest.

"This is... really... an underwhelming way to die..."

And with those words, he stopped working. Ara walked back to him. She got on her knees and embraced his cold body. It was warm, unlike usual. She wasn't crying. She told herself that was because their relationship lasted for only a few days. Then, she felt an hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a tall person, claded in a black robe which completely covered him.

"Who are you?"

"An old friend"

The voice told Ara that was a woman. Also, she sounded somehow familiar. She wondered for a second if she was lying, but she couldn't think of a reason someone would lye about something like that.

"I'd like to bury him" she said.

"... I'll help you then"

"It's something I'd rather do alone"

Ara stood up.

"I know I already asked this, but who are you?"

The woman took Oberon's body and placed it on her shoulder. Seemed like she had quite the physical strength.

"I'll tell you next time, sweetie"

_S-sweetie?_

And with that, she began to walk away.

"Wait. Where do you plan to bury him?"

"Don't worry. I'll show you the place once I'm done"

The woman kept walking, and she soon disappeared into the woods. She didn't seem a normal person at all, but that somehow made it plausible for her to be an old acquaintance of Oberon. Ara stood there for a moment, then turned to the tree Oberon had laid against. His helmet was still there. She grabbed it, staring at it for a while. Then, a drop of water fell on her head. In a matter of seconds, it started raining.

_Ara. Let's go back._

"... yes"

As she walked back to the house, Ara couldn't tell if the water running down her face was from the rain, or from her eyes.


End file.
